Question for other EMTs that ride MCs

[TransportJockey]

I just got back from a ridealong with a friend in a local Ambulance service and one of the calls we responded to was a motorcyclist fatality. I was just wondering how you guys deal with stuff like that.
I've seen crashes and people get hurt when I work as a corner marshall at the track, but never anything like this.

Maybe it's a good thing my bike is in pieces while I'm waiting for parts, cause I dont know if I want to really ride right now.

 

[BossyCow]

This is really common. When a call gets under our radar and hits us on a personal level. Whether its a pt who looks like your Aunt Mabel or a kid who was wearing a jacket identical to the one your kid's best friend was wearing the last time you saw him.

This has less to do with motorcycles than it does with the common EMS provider mindset of ... "If I learn enough, this will never, ever happen to me or anyone I love" We see up close and personal how fragile the human form can be. Give yourself some time! Personally, I decided that the next time I hit a dog, I was going to win. So my bike went on the market and I have nothing left but the gravel still in my elbow to remind me of the event.

 

[firetender]

I started riding motorcycles around the same time I became a paramedic, back in the mid-1970's. I was taught by my partner who raced motorcycles before becoming a medic. We worked in Daytona Beach, FL, including yearly stints covering Speed Week and picking up the debris of countless bike wrecks big and small.

Through him I learned that the best you can do as a rider is to, at all times, reduce the odds of getting into an accident and never relinquish control of the bike. If one should occur (based on the assumption that there's two kinds of bikers, those that have fallen off and those who will fall off), make sure you have protective gear on.

And my instincts taught me that I should never for a second think that it can't happen to me.

Those lessons have served me very well for over 30 years of riding.

 

[medic001918]

I ride...and it just doesn't bother me. Bad things happen to people. It's not always fair, but that's how it is. You can't spend too much time in the field and not see things. I've seen people who don't take care of themselves at all live to a ripe old age, and I've seen young people who are healthy and doing everything "right" drop dead of heart attacks. You can't let the job stop you from living.

I also don't ride like I have something to prove when I ride on the street. I've proven all I need to on the track so that I can be comfortable with myself on the street.

Shane
NREMT-P

 

[TransportJockey]

Thanks guys. I think what really hit, is that was the first person who had died that I saw. The fact it just happened to be another biker just drove the point home.
I, too, don't ride like I have anythin to prove when on the street. Anyone who says anything to me gets an invitation from me to back up their mouth at the road course

 

[thowle]

A routine debriefing of calls would always be nice to help coupe and deal with incident such as the one described. Always look at things from a perspective as a lesson learned.

We cannot control lifes journey or length, all we can do is provide our skills in an effort to prolong it -- however, if it isn't meant to be, it won't "be" anylonger; make no mistake of it.

Work a call, do your best, have a debriefing, study what you did and what you could have done better; but never blame yourself or another for what happend.

Sorry you had to experience that, but it's a part of this thing we all call "life".