Dealing with family as an EMS professional.

dadotwins

dadotwins

Forum Crew Member
Messages
31
Reaction score
0
Points
0
I'm starting this to see if there are similar stories out there. My hats off to you if there are.
About two years ago My Partener and I receive a call. A lady possibly 10-7. 10-7 is our code for dead. I knew well the road in question but thought no more about it. The address given turned out to be my Aunt's, No I didn't know my Aunts numerical address. I so wanted to be a grieving nephew, yet felt compelled to be a trained professional. My Aunt was pronounced dead at the scene. It took several months and a stress test for chest pain later to finally grieve properly for her. A later incident involved my wife and daughter in a three car wreck. I was on duty. The other crew was up so it wasn't my run. My partener wanted to know if I want to go ahead and go in the other bus. I said "NO", I'm going POV,as of right now I'm off duty. Told him to call the chief and find another partener. Did I deal with these things properly, probably not. But I was curious about my brothers and sisters out there and your thoughts on responding to family as the EMT. Thanx.
 
I had a call once to a friend from high school. He had CP. The call went down as difficulty breathing. I did not know his address off the top of my head but once we pulled up to the house I knew it was his. We get inside and his mom sees me and starts screaming "OMG emtcop he isn't breathing, help him please!" Sure enough he wasn't breathing and had no pulse. We did CPR (my first time) and everything else we could but he ended up dieing at the hospital. It was pretty hard on me. I kept thinking back "well maybe if I did this he would still be alive." When I went to the funeral I still felt pretty horrible, almost as if it were my fault. His mom came up to me and hugged me and thanked me for doing what I could. That is when I realized it was his time to go and I had no say in it. As far as acting like a friend or professional on scene I didn't really have time to think about it. Instincts kicked in and I went into life saving mode.

As far as your wife and kid being in an accident I think you did the right thing. IMHO you needed to be with your family not at your job.
 
I have had to deal with family members while off duty where I have had to call a rig for them and I have felt helpless because I did not have any of my gear with me. I think that family is the hardest thing to deal with, but I also think that in certain situations you are the best chance your family member has compared to a bystander. If you can distance yourself and be a family member that is what I would do because in a situation like that you are not always able to think objectively as a professional. I don't think I could keep it together if I got to a scene where my wife and kids were in a wreck. Hope your family is OK, Sorry to hear about your aunt.
 
Turned out to be a fender bender. They're doing great. Thanx!
 
grandma

i arrived at the nursing home where my grandmother resided and met a medic friend at the door, and he ask me to help him with a call inside which was to be a cardiac arrest. Turned out to be grandmas room and we ran the call just like business as usuall only differance with this call was i knew i would crash if i didnt follow up with stress/ grief counciling. Take care
 
My apologies.

Dude, my scincerest apologies for the loss of your grandmother. CISD is a great thing to have. In time I have studied on becoming part of our states team. As my my children get older, I'm may reconsider this.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top