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Being Able To Save Lives: Paramedic Stories, Part V (By Kendall Victor Smith, Paramedic/EMT) by Karen Lynn Vidra, The Texas Tornado
Tuesday, June 1, 2004
Rated "PG" by the Author.
One of Nashville's Finest shares us more stories from the front lines in the world of ambulances, sirens, and working hard to save the lives of the sick and injured.
Being a paramedic is not all what it is cracked up to be. It is not a job I would recommend to just anybody. The reason I say this is because of several factors, really.
First of all, you are always on call. People need you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 12 months a year, 365 days a year (366 if it's a leap year), day AND night, in storm, sun, snow, rain, sleet, even tornado. They can get sick or injured when you least expect it, and chances are, when someone DOES call that "magic number" (9-1-1), you'd BEST be ready to respond when those warning tones go off!
Secondly of all, unless you are on vacation or have requested time off from work, you do NOT get holidays OR weekends off, and t he hours are long and quite unpredictable. You never know what will occur down the pike when you are a Paramedic/EMT, and your calls can be as few as a couple to as many as a dozen or more within a 24 hour period! Your calls are as varied as the days themselves: you can get everything from a mischevious child who has gotten their head stuck between railings on a crib or a stairway or got caught in a tight spot, or someone who is lying on the floor, rolling in abject agony, writhing in pain, as they have managed to throw their "trick back" out again, and they are stuck; and it is YOUR job to get them "UNstuck". Or you can get more serious calls (which is usually the case) such as MVA's, shootingss, stabbings, heart attacks or stoppage of breathing, or people who have attempted suicide, or those who have abused others, and they need an ambulance for those that they purposely injured.
Thirdly, you deal with a wide populace: the aged, the young, the handicapped, infirm, the able-bodied, black, white, tan, yellow, non-English speakers or English-speakers, poor, rich, Christian, non-believer, the sober, the drunk, commoners, prominent people...You deal with it ALL when you are a paramedic/EMT!
Probably the hardest calls for ME that I deal with on a regular basis are the kids. When kids get sick or injured, the situation turns more serious because kids are our future, and they don't deserve to be sick or suffer unnecessarily; yet, when they DO become sick or hurt, it is our job to provide fast relief from their suffering or comfort them during transport or painful procedures (blood gas draws, IV insertions, pinching, poking, etc.), and it is our job to try to help them through their crises. Probably some of the worst calls for ME as a paramedic/EMT are calls that involve babies with SIDS, or babies who have been burned or abused by family members, or kids who have, for one reason or another, suddenly stopped breathing. There is nothing more terrifying to a parent (or even a paramedic if they aren't used to it) than a child who is blue in the face or gasping for each and every breath, or their worried parent screaming out: "DO SOMETHING!" Other cases that get to me just as badly are those kids who are suffering from horrible, catastrophic illnesses like cancer, muscular dystrophy, AIDS, or other "incurable ills" that threaten their young lives, and sometimes you wonder if saving their life is worth anything because you know that they are dying anyway, and you don't want to see them suffer than what they already have; yet, they are kids, and a part of you inside says for you to "Save Them; Let Them Live!", and so you do anything humanly possible to try to save these fragile young lives and hope for another day for these special Angels here on Earth!
Or you get kids who come down with adult diseases like diabetes (I regularly see kids in insulin shock or diabetic coma), or kids who have multiple sclerosis, high blood pressure or heart failure, or strokes, diseases more associated with adulthood or the older populace; but yet you see kids with these problems, and it breaks your heart. I remember one such young lady who had a major stroke ON the day she turned eight years old, and it was ONLY by a Miracle that she managed to survive! (She is now a young lady of 11, and she is doing very well for herself. I look at her now, and I am amazed that this was the same little girl who I tried so hard to save when she had her stroke nearly four years ago!) Or her brother: he has muscular dystrophy, and many times we felt that he would somehow "give up the ghost" because he'd go down with another seizure or breathing crisis; yet, we have managed to yank him from the brink of death each and every time, and he is doing well at the present time, considering all his medical issues! (He is going on the age of 12 as well.)
Another call that probably stands out in my mind was when we got a call for somebody who had been struck by lightning. When we got to the scene, I was dismayed to find out that the person struck by lightning was none other than my then-girlfriend (now my wife), Rachel Phillips; and we worked like hell to try to bring her back. I never was so scared like I was that day when I saw her lying on the ground, blue, limp, and not breathing; and for a while I thought we were going to lose her, but somehow, deep inside, something "happened", and the once-flat monitors stopped their incessent buzzing, and the lines started to squiggle, she started exhibiting a gag reflex, and she gasped, coughed a few times, and started breathing on her own. She lived; and today, she still does live, and she and I have been married for several years now. (She was a storm chaser and was chasing a storm when she was accidently struck by the lightning. She has long-term health concerns from the strike, and she will never be as she was before she got struck; but she is still my wife, and I love her; and I feel grateful to God Above that I was around at the time she was injured and that I was able to spare her life!)
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This CD will touch the deepest inner part of your humanness and spirit, you will never be the same after listening to the depths of struggle, the reality of life, the touching voice of truth. It will shock you, move you to tears. It w
A poignant story about letting go of a narcissist in your life. Have you ever been attacked FULL force by a narcissist? It's the closest thing to being stabbed over and over in the back.
Being a paramedic is not all what it is cracked up to be. It is not a job I would recommend to just anybody. The reason I say this is because of several factors, really.
