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Paramedic Stories, Part XXI: She Was Just Thirteen...(By George "Goose" Guzman, EMT/Paramedic) by Karen Lynn Vidra, The Texas Tornado
Saturday, October 30, 2004
Rated "PG13" by the Author.
The Goose (George Guzman, Paramedic/EMT) shares a particularly heartbreaking story about a young girl who committed suicide. She was just thirteen years old.
No matter how hard I try, every time I think of young Emily Ronee' Perales, I can't help but cry or get tears in my eyes.
Emily was a young girl with a long-standing history of family-related problems that just came to a head as she grew older; and she couldn't take it any longer, so she killed herself. She killed herself by overdosing on her grandmother's heart pills; she was later found by her mother, lying on the floor, unconscious and not moving.
Emily had lost her father, Auturo, during the 9-11-01 terror attacks while her and her family were vacationing in New York (the girl, her mother, and her two younger brothers got out safely, well in advance of the towers collapsing, but her father didn't make it out in time; he was busy helping the injured when the towers fell), and upon returning back home to Tennessee, the problems escalated. Emily and her mother's relationship, once strong and healthy, deterioated rapidly, and Emily started suffering from bouts of ongoing depression that only got worse as time went on. The fact that her younger brothers getting extra attention from her mother didn't help matters, and she also started having problems in school. Her grades slipped drastically, and so did her morale and her self esteem. She was continually sad, and the things that she once held dear didn't interest her in the least. She started hanging out with kids who were involved with drugs or gang-activity, and things just grew out of control for her.
The once bright-eyed, lively Latina beauty with the waist-long, thick, blue-black hair, large, luminous dark eyes, and sweet, tinkling laugh was now a shell of her former self: she was now sullen, morose, self-indulgent, and interested in only her friends or being with them. She now hated school, and she and her mother fought constantly: they were always butting heads, and screaming matches soon became a common fixture at the Perales household. The brothers also got into trouble, and pretty soon, police cars became regular visitors to the neighborhood where the Perales family lived.
All of this came to a head when, a few months ago, the call over the speaker came for a possible suicide involving a child. At the sound of it, my heart fell to my toes; such runs were hard to deal with, and they left a bitter aftertaste in our mouths. The child, a Latina female between the age of 11 and 13, was found, lying unconscious, on the floor of her bedroom by her mother; and her mother was the one who had called for an ambulance. An open bottle of pills was found by the child's head.
We quickly got to the scene and soon, we were working hard to save the youngster's life. The child was not breathing, and she was without pulse: clinically, she was already dead, and only a miracle could save her now. We did everything we possibly could for her: we tried to get life-saving oxygen to her brain and heart, before brain damage or disability would set in, we shocked her heart, in the hopes of getting it beating again, we injected life-saving medicines into her body, and we tried to bring her back to the world of the living; but to no avail. No matter what we did for her, the little girl remained lifeless and limp; and time was quickly slipping away from her.
We quickly loaded her into the back of the ambulance, still working on her all the while, hoping, praying that she would somehow spring back to life; but nothing. The little girl remained unconscious, not breathing, not having a pulse. Still, we doggedly worked on, and once she was in the back of the ambulance, we only worked harder to try to revive her as the ambulance screamed its way to the hospital, lights and sirens going full-tilt boogie.
We were at the hospital within minutes. But the child still was without any signs of life, and the situation only grew more tense as the E.R. team took over the girl's care and started pounding on her, stabbing her, anything to try to will her still, flaccid, waxen body back to life. The last thing I saw upon leaving was the code team working feverishly over the child, their full attention on the situation at hand. You could hardly see the young woman-child on the table for all the nurses and doctors surrounding her.
Unfortunately, the child didn't make it. She died despite efforts to save her. She was but thirteen, barely a teenager, just over childhood. She left a mother and three younger brothers, ages 10, 9, and 7, behind. It was the second time in three years when the same family faced death. First the husband died in the 9-11-01 terrorist attacks against the United States when the Twin Towers fell when the family had been in New York on that day, and now, just over three years later, the oldest child--and the only girl--died when she committed suicide.
She could have had a wonderful life. She could have gone to high school, learned to drive a car, have a boyfriend, or attend her first prom; or even go to college or get married and start a family of her own, but no...her own stubborn pride and her willingness to escape reality got in her way, and she ended her life when she should have been enjoying it.She was just a kid, a goddamned kid, and no matter how hard I try or want to, I just can't get over it.
Wow Karen! What a write!
Soooo powerful! This is definitely
a keeper in my library! I just love
your paramedic series!
Love ya!
Becca
ps.Thanks for your prayers!I am healing real good from surgery!
Very powerful write. I heard it said once that suicide is an act of vengeance against an indifferent world. I hope someone thinking of an "easy out" reads this and reconsiders casting away the precious gift of life.
The first person that I knew that committed suicide was a nine year old boy. It was a case of the parents not knowing their son. The next time it was a seventeen year old boy whose mother stopped him from seeing his girlfriend. Anytime each time is a waste you just pray that you can help the next that is all you can do.
*tears* this is the most powerful one yet in your paramedic series--anger and frustration clearly evident in this young man's story--the language just enhances his feelings of inepitude and inadequacy. BRAVA! engrossing and compelling read and write; well done!
(((HUGS))) and love, karla.
thank you for remembering our REAL heroes: our medics :(
Suspenseful and close to home, Rain of Deception 2 will leave you in Tears. Much like Part 1, this will shocking sequel will keep you on the edge of your fingertips.
Suspenseful and close to home, Rain of Deception 2 will leave you in Tears. Much like Part 1, this will shocking sequel will keep you on the edge of your fingertips.
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.
No matter how hard I try, every time I think of young Emily Ronee' Perales, I can't help but cry or get tears in my eyes.
