EMS

Working EMS makes you realize that it is a thankless, hurtful, yet empowering job.  It makes you realize human nature, the ups and downs of society, and has you very thankful for stupid people for providing you with job security.  Not many people can handle a job like this.  Most people base their opinions about what we do based off of TV shows and what they hear.  We don’t just drive an ambulance and bring sick people into the hospital.  We do a lot more than that.  We have to make people understand the term, “sick”. 

The average EMT/Paramedic working in the field is statistically only supposed to last 3-5 years on the job.  And nearly 80% of those leave the field with some sort of PTSD.  Normally, people leave because of moving on to bigger and better things or back injuries.  But there is a huge emotional side of the job as well.  There are so many things that you can’t un-see, can’t stop hearing things before you fall asleep every night.  Coming into the job, you think things will be like what you see on TV and what you learned in class.  But once you get in that ambulance at the start of your shift, you throw most of the training out of the window and put some practicality into what you were taught.  There is absolutely no such thing as a textbook case.  Working the streets puts us in non-isolated, possibly dangerous situations.  We are out in the heat, rain, snow, blizzards, floods, everything.  Not only do we find our patients in conditions like that, but we also have to drive through it.  We also go to HazMat scenes, structure fires, Carbon Monoxide calls, etc.  Weather aside, we respond to shootings, assaults, stabbings, child abuse, etc.  Because we want to.  No, we need to help.  24/7, 365.

I’ve been working both volunteer and paid EMS services since 2009 and even in t his short time, I’ve both seen and done a lot.  I’ve done CPR multiple times, have had people die, have people live from it.  There is nothing more unnerving than performing CPR on a child.  Respond to confirm deaths.  Respond to a three year old with multiple injuries resulting in a broken arm and multiple bruises from Mom and Dad.  I’ve back boarded a 5 year old who got pushed out of a 3^rd story window.  Car accidents with fatalities.  Rape and sexual assault victims for both adults and minors.  Overdoses.  Suicide attempts, assaults, shootings, stabbings, domestic violence.   Prison transfers out of Maximum Security Prisons.  Severe medical emergencies including strokes, STEMI’s, heart attacks, respiratory arrest, anaphylaxis, etc.  The Dead on Arrival (DOA’s) that are so obvious you can smell it before you walk inside.  And then we have the good calls, the saves.  The old ladies telling us how sweet we are and to call them “Grandmammy”, the little kids who are crying and feel better when you hold their hands and make turkeys out of gloves by inflating them to have something to play with, or play doctor with the stethoscope.  We’ve delivered babies, experiencing the miracle of life in a very confined space on the side of the street.  These are all things we respond to, treat, and transport on a daily basis.  We are the ones who deal with scenes and situations that the Fire Department and Police Department can’t handle.  We are the ones who deal with it and treat it, not only dealing with and treating the patients, but for ourselves as well.   There are doctors out there that have tried working the streets and cannot handle the pressure of being the first line of treatment, seeing the scene of a bloody car accident or bad trauma even though they treat it at the hospital in a safe environment out of the elements.  What we do 9 times out of 10 on a legit bad call determines life or death for the patient.  We have to know our stuff, and we can’t afford to mess up. (No pressure!) We really do save lives, even if it’s just helping someone through stopping another suicide attempt, or responding to a call for someone who just wants company and to have her new medication explained to her because she’s lonely.  EMS is normally not recognized as a rewarding job.  It definitely comes with negatives, but the positive ones are so good and rewarding that it gets you through the tough times.  I had a really… really bad call yesterday.  But today, one lady we picked up had a silly joke that made me smile for the rest of the day, “What did one strawberry say to the other strawberry?  ….”How’d we get into this jam?” J The silly small things, taking the time out of the transport to not only get to the patient on a professional, medical level, but to be able to make them smile when they’re in severe pain, be patient for the psych patients, but mostly, to just listen and have compassion for the situation they are in. 

Rant about taking ambulances to get triaged faster instead of driving yourself at a later date, along with Medicaid taxis and calls that make you just go, “huh??” (Like calling because you have a stubbed toe from the day before, when you live TWO houses away from the ER entrance of the trauma center.  Or tell us that they pay our salary because they have Medicaid.) Oh, all for another day.

*Note: Going by ambulance does not mean you’ll be seen or treated faster!

XOXOXO