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Paramedic Stories: Questions (By Kendall V. Smith, Paramedic/EMT) by Karen Lynn Vidra, The Texas Tornado
Monday, April 16, 2007
Rated "PG" by the Author.
Kendall Smith relates some of his more memorable (and heartwrenching) cases during his career as a paramedic/EMT.
I have been a paramedic/EMT for over ten years now. Even after all this time I still can't get used to it when patients die on me. It is especially difficult when it is a child or an infant.
Nobody deserves to suffer, but when a child or infant is sick or injured, it goes against all that we have learned. What they teach us in paramedic school sometimes doesn't apply to the field; they don't teach us what to do when our emotions get a hold of us. Sometimes that is hard to do, especially if we happen to know the victim.
Then it hits too close to home. Believe me, I have had that happen; it's a wonder I am still doing this for a living.
I don't know why God allows human suffering or pain. I don't know why some people who do bad things are allowed to live while others who have barely begun to enjoy life or who are good people end up dying on us, even with all that we have done in order to try to save their life. I don't know why people have to inflict pain or suffering on others on account of their actions or why they get so bent on seeing blood or gore.
Every time we pull up in our rig (paramedicese for "ambulance"), there's a crowd gathered, to watch the action. They hope we can save that person's life, and when we do something like perform CPR on a child or shock an old lady's chest with the "bug zapper" (defibrillator), they are hanging on with bated breath, watching every move with raptured interest.
Then we are regarded as heroes, especially when we have a "save" (a successful outcome). It can get rewarding, but more often than not, it gets annoying. We are not gods; we are regular people who are only trying to do a job, and we are trying to save that person before they check into that Big Hospital in the Sky.
Some of the more memorable cases we have ran across is the time when we had to revive a young girl after she suffered a bee-sting at the age of seven (she survived; she's now fourteen; still has allergies, but she knows to stay away from the things that give her the most trouble), when we had to revive a little boy (the girl's brother) with a neuromuscular disorder who had a prolonged seizure (we had to use our very wits to save his ass; he nearly coded on us several times during the course of his seizure), and when we had to rescue tenants from a burning apartment building. (In that one, two people died, but we did manage to save the rest of 'em; it could have very easily been a lot worse).
We also had to respond to car wrecks where the victims were halfway hanging out of their bashed in cars, had to do water or high rise building rescues, rescue people from floods, tornadoes, or lightning strikes, rescue animals stuck in trees (we even managed to rescue a baby lion from a tree; that was quite interesting, to say the least!), and we had to help people who were stone cold out of it due to drugs, alcohol, or psychotic illness.
More often than not, we were the ones who ended up needing rescue because some nut went berzerko on us, weilding a gun or a knife, and we could have easily been badly injured or even killed had it not been for the quicksaving actions of a fellow paramedic or even a police officer who happened to be wandering by when this particular incident was taking place. That is when I question the reasons why I got into this field in the first place.
Yet when I hear the cough or cry issuing from the lips of the person we have just saved or see them opening their eyes, the feeling of satisfaction we get is incredible; it is nothing short of miraculous that God has given us the skills in order to save others, and it makes our jobs as lifesavers all the more meaningful.
I guess you can say the reason why I do this is for a living is to help others. That's probably the number one reason why I decided to go into Emergency Medicine.
~Written by Kendall Victor Smith, Paramedic/EMT, Nashville, Tennessee.
Informative and realistic heartfelt issues of the life of a paramedic...checking into work, a paramedic never knows what their day or night holds in store for them...just that when they get a call, the siren wails, there's a life to be saved holding off the undertaker is their duty...thanks for the story today, Karen Lynn...be well you and Karla...Blessed Be.
My baby brother, Steve, was a volunter fireman and EMT for years and years. He performed heroic acts without batting an eyelash, and almost lost his own life many times. But just two years ago, his own foot&ankle was totally shattered under a Harley Eagle!
Surgery and pain ended the fireman/EMT for him, and he is about to retire as a Correction Officer at a prison, as well. But he will always be a Hero to me.
This is a wonderfully written salute to our finest First Responders. I believe God created them to be heroes, when they were conceived!
Thank you and God bless you, Karen
Love&Hugs, Rhonda
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