Karen Lynn Vidra, The Texas Tornado, click
here to update your pages on AuthorsDen.
Paramedic Stories, Part XXXVI: What It Means To Be A Paramedic... by Karen Lynn Vidra, The Texas Tornado
Saturday, October 1, 2005
Rated "PG" by the Author.
A paramedic writes about some of the most interesting (and heartwrenching) cases he has ever faced during his ten-plus years as a paramedic.
Some of the most interesting cases I have ever experienced during my ten-plus years as a paramedic have also been some of the most challenging, the most heartwrenching, and the most puzzling. I have seen everything from near-drownings, stabbing victims, people with missing body parts or body parts just barely hanging on, people who seemed at the very brink of death, and people who were expected to die at any moment suddently come back to life through some unexplained miracle.
My name is Kendall Smith, and I have always wanted to be a paramedic, ever since I was a small boy. In fact, one of my very favorite television shows was the show, "Emergency", in which I watched every week, on a religious basis. I was a huge fan of Kevin Tighe and Randolph Mantooth, the show's two main stars, and I couldn't wait to get home after school, to catch the latest adventures of these two young, good-looking guys who risked life and limb to save people in need. It was because of this show that I decided that I wanted to be just like them; I wanted to be a paramedic when I got to be an adult.
When I graduated from high school, I immediately started taking classes in becoming a paramedic, and three months later, I was already out on "runs". Some of the first cases I had encountered included a little boy who had seizures due to brain damage, a little girl who kept having repeated attacks of asthma or allergies, elderly patients who had chronic medical conditions, and people who would get into various types of accidents or would call 9-1-1 just to stir up some kind of excitement (these people were off their rocker, but still, we were obligated to help them, no matter how much they happened to annoy us).
I have seen so much in my paramedic career, and some of the sights I have witnessed are some that I would not care to see ever again. I have seen people living in squalor, people at their very worst as they destroy their bodies to drugs, alcohol, gang violence, or multiple piercings or some other type of mutilation, kids who are blue in the face as they gasp for each end every breath, screaming infants who have to be tied down as we try to attempt to get an I.V. line into fragile veins, hysterical family members who are trying to pull you off their unconscious father, who is clinically dead due to a myocardial infarction, as you beat him further into oblivion, in the hopes of getting a meaningful heart rhythm back, teens whose faces are bloody as they lie dazed or unconscious in the remains of a wrecked up car or truck as you try to extracate them without causing further injury to their broken bodies, or a man who is wigging out in a psychotic crisis, and you are trying to keep him tied down in the back of an ambulance and hoping to God that he doesn't destroy you, your partner, or the back of the ambulance, thus, putting your very life at harm's way. I have also had to rescue a cat that was stuck in a tree (only it wasn't a domestic kitty: it was a baby lion!), run from barking or growling dogs who are bent on tearing you limb from limb as you try to help their stricken master, and have had to dangle off the edge of a building to try to coax a suicidal person not to jump (we weren't always successful). I have seen bodies broken open like eggs thrown from a great height, and then it is our job to try to patch them as best as we can before we get them to the hospital where they will then be further evaluated and treated, and I have seen people lying in their own filth, their eyes pleading for us to help them in their time of crisis.
Yes, I have seen a lot of nasty things as a paramedic, but that is something that comes with the territory. You expect to see things like broken bones, blood, vomit, shit, and whatnot, and you expect to see people who are clearly on their way to checking out, and you have to do everything in your power to try to help them and to try to save their life. Yet when a child who was once unconscious finally opens up her eyes or lets out a shaky, soft breath, you feel so good, and you know you were instrumental in getting her back. You also know that you cared enough to help the victim, and that you made a difference in reviving her. You also have to help people die sometimes, and that is probably one of the hardest, most difficult things you have to do, but you know that you can't save every life, and that death is as much of a part of life as life itself, and when a person DOES die, it isn't usually your fault.
Still, with all the drawbacks that we face during our job and all the demands thereof (no holidays off, no weekends off, time away from loved ones and friends, erratic scheduling, etc.), I wouldn't trade none of this for all the money in the world, and I would much rather be saving lives than be doing something like flipping hamburgers at a McDonald's for little or no pay or working in a high-rise, working for a brutal taskmaster like The Donald (Donald Trump). I would much rather be helping a sick or needy person and getting them to a nearby medical facility and know deep in my gut that I made a difference in a stranger's life and know that I was instrumental in saving them for just a little while longer. Yes, sir, that is what being a paramedic is all about, and it is something that I would like to continue doing as long as I am able.
Now you got ME wanting to be one... d'ya think it's too late?! Trouble is, I'm a bit on the squeamish side... can they train that our of you, if the will is there... or is it a "given" that you have guts of steel? I've always wondered... THANK YOU, Karen, for this peek into a life that gives and saves life. One of the most valuable of the all-valuable ones that there is. Precious, thank you. Kate xx
Spoken Word
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.
A page-turning novel about a relationship between best friends that is interrupted because of betrayal , deceit, sexual promiscuity and pregnancy happens!
