Patient Thank you.

[coloradoemt]

Crawford woman tracks down paramedics who saved her life.
http://www.macon.com/mld/telegraph/news/local/10792878.htm

I know that most if not all of us are out there not for the glory and deffinately not for the green, but I am curious how many out there have actually had a patient come find them to say thank you.

 

[rescuecpt]

At the FD we get thank you's all the time (usually with checks in them).

We've also received a fruit basket, flowers, and a $36,000 bequeath (?) when one frequent flier passed.

At the corps I've seen people walk in with thank yous - and one day a bouquet was delivered from a man thanking one of the overnight crews for helping him get a bug out of his ear - the card said "Sorry to bug you - thanks for helping me out!"

 

[rescuecpt]

Forgot to mention I was shoveling my driveway last week and one of my neighbors stopped his car to thank me for taking his mom in when she broke her hip - 9 months ago.

 

[ffemt8978]

We get one about every three months or so. They stop in to the FD during one of our meetings and bring us food! They're usually cardiac cases that we were able to get to the hospital in time. Our trauma victims, or more often their family members, send us a thank you card. We get about one of those a month.

 

[Phridae]

Yeah, we get thank yous usually in the form of a check. The post them in the news paper too. Usually its someone old who broke their hip or what not. They always thank the nurses, and the doctors, and who ever elese visited and helped. Its nice to see them.

 

[emtbuff]

We have gotten thank yous in alot of ways also We get recognized in the paper sometimes it is ambulance crew and other times it is all the names individual, or a little thank you note to the squad or to the individual person, we also get donations, and phone calls to the individual person. I have recieved alot of scincer thanks from individual patients when we transfer them to.

Oh was I wrong in thinking that we did this for the green. I get to see plenty of it when the snow melts.

 

[coloradoemt]

This is good to hear. I have recieved only one thank you outside of the rig or ED and she happens to be my neighbor.

 

[SafetyPro2]

We get lots of thank you cards at the station...they're always read as "correspondence" during the monthly meeting. We also occasionally get cookies, brownies, and other food from former patients. They rarely last long around the station and are always appreciated.

One of the more touching and poignient instances involved one of the more wealthy families in town (married, older couple). They've been long-time supporters of the department, frequently sending very nice gifts (fancy gift baskets, fresh fruit, etc.) and making large donations to the department. About a year ago, the wife went into arrest, and we responded. Unfortunately, she didn't make it, despite our best efforts (yours truly was the defib operator).

At our next meeting, we received a very nice card/letter from the husband thanking us for what we did in trying to save his wife. Along with the card was a very substantial check. The husband mentioned how his wife always wanted to take care of us and feed us, and asked that the check be used to establish a fund to help pay for the dinner at our monthly meeting.

We now enjoy dinner each month thanks to the Cathy Hefflin Meal Fund, and remember her every time we do.

Dang, I'm tearing up just writing this.

 

[MMiz]

I get chills down my spine as I read these stories.

We don't get many thanks working in private EMS, but it's nice to know that others get recognized for their hard work and dedication.