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Paramedic Stories, Part XXXII: Kids With Special Needs (By Pat E. Moss) by Karen Lynn Vidra, The Texas Tornado
Wednesday, April 13, 2005
Rated "G" by the Author.
An EMT writes about some of her younger, more challenging patients she has had to take care of.
I try to do my job, and when I do, I usually do it well. But no matter what I do or how many times I go on "runs", I just can't seem to get used to patients who turn out to be kids. Whenever a kid gets sick or is injured, it is always so damned hard, and it goes against the very grain of what I have learned in EMT training.
Yes, you expect kids to get sick. Yes, you expect kids to become injured. Kids are not afraid of anything, but sometimes, their natural curiosity and insatiable energy leads them into difficult situations that usually ends up in one of them becoming sick or injured, and then you have to act fast, especially if that child's life is in mortal danger.
Kids are always hard to deal with anyway (especially if they are unconscius or gasping for air--or even not breathing--), but kids who deal with adversity every day of their young lives are especially challenging. I have taken care of kids who go through the whole gamut of the disability spectrum: kids who are blind, kids who are hearing-impaired, kids who are mentally ill or mentally disabled, kids who have severe brain damage, kids who are in wheelchairs or on crutches for various reasons, or kids who are nothing more than mere vegetables. Some of what these kids have had to go through is absolutely heartshattering, and whenever a run involves a kid with a special health need, the stress level only rises, and you have to use all your wits about you as you try to save that kid from croaking on you.
I have taken care of kids with cerebral palsy, kids who are basically nonverbal or are tube-fed and rely on fmaily members or health workers to take care of their most basic needs, and I have taken care of kids with Down's syndrome or some other syndrome that renders them mentally deficient, and I have taken care of kids who are severely emotionally scarred because of drug use, abuse, or an unfortunate accident. I also have taken care of kids who are struggling to draw in breath, and I have taken care of kids who are young victims of some rare, insidious disease or disorder that I am not even familiar with, and I have absolutely no clue as to what to do for them except try to ease their fears or make them more comfortable--and try to reassure their scared, unsure parents who are in even worse shape than the child.
I also have taken care of kids who are only mildly disabled, but because of their disability, they are often friendless, unhappy, ostracized by the school or neighborhood kids, or struggling with every day tasks because of their inability to learn or read like most kids. They get hurt or sick just like any other child who DOESN'T have a disability, but yet their disabilities pose a special challenge that we paramedics or EMTS are just beginning to understand.
When I first became an EMT, I dealt with very few disabled kids, but then I moved to Nashville, and I soon began to see kids who were disabled on a regular basis; and it seemed that quite a few of the kids were from one particular family, the Sanduskys. The Sanduskys were a couple in their 30's who took in unwanted, abandoned, or "hopelessly damaged" kids, kids with heartwrenching disabilities, but as I began to deal with this family on a regular basis, I soon learned to see that even though the children were mostly disabled, they were still treated as normal children by their parents, and it soon became apparent to me and my colleagues just how well-loved (and well cared for) these children were, and we soon began to see them in a new way; and we soon began to see them as being "beautiful". Sure, dealing with their many medical problems still proved to be very difficult at best, but we saw them as kids first, kids who needed our help to get them through their latest medical crisis, and we learned to love them as though they were one of our very OWN children.
A page-turning novel about a relationship between best friends that is interrupted because of betrayal , deceit, sexual promiscuity and pregnancy happens!
I try to do my job, and when I do, I usually do it well. But no matter what I do or how many times I go on "runs", I just can't seem to get used to patients who turn out to be kids. Whenever a kid gets sick or is injured, it is always so damned hard, and it goes against the very grain of what I have learned in EMT training.
