worst call of my Career.

[RanchoEMT]

I've seen a couple of things that have hit pretty close to home, wilst working. Ive seen people who were in nursing homes waiting to die, drop their pulse while i was palpating. Ive seen a man die infront of his family in his kitchen, who MINUTES prior was alert and oriented and telling us we were great. Ive seen an :censored::censored::censored::censored::censored::censored::censored: pass by our ambulance on the fwy going about 90mph on a bike, and about a minute later we drive upto a crash on the side rail, he had become a lump of mashed up human with brain matter coming out of the cracks of his helmet. Ive seen young people, my age, dressed up for a party ejectated out onto the freeway with no chance of living a normal life again. The scarring on the tree they hit will always be there looking back at me when i drive past it. Ive responded to calls near or on the way home. Ive responded to houses were i once walked by coming home from school, only to find horrible horrible experiences in them. Ive cried after a girl (me and my gf's age) called 911 becuase her BF was passed out in bed one morning and unable to wake him. Because he was dead. She asked us why we(The Ambulance) were leaving and i didnt have the stomach to tell her. Ive seen some stuff.... But one of the worst things that im never gonna be able to forget is when a girl whose boyfriend ran her over in attempt to kill her, himself and her unborn baby because she wouldn'tget an abortion... This may not sound SO bad, but i knew her from highschool. The closer you are to the patient the more loss your going to feel. There's a difference between a body and a person. The full arrest with downtime prior to our arrival is not worth remembering. The full arrest with a guy whose talking to you, tells u his name and repeats your name back is personal, that is a loss. Not much talking after that call i remember....

Anywho, just dont bottle all of your sadness, fears, anger, and questions up.. If u feel u cant talk about it without tearing up, that means u need find someone u dont mind crying infront of and let it all out.

 

[EMTBHillbilly]

My philosophy is: It was going to happen. And if it was going to happen, somebody had to be there to deal with it. If that somebody isn't me, who then? I try to walk away glad that it was me who was there to assist. So far, so good. It's all part of why I do this job.

 

[medicnick83]

I think the best way to deal with things is to talk about it.

 

[ITBITB13]

Hey guys. I've only worked for a private IFT service & independent stand-by company, so the worst trauma I've seen on the job is a broken arm. I just got hired by a 911 company, so I know I'll be seeing/involved in a lot of traumatizing stuff. My only fear is something hitting me as hard as the OP. Anybody have any advice on preparing/managing these things for a 911 newbie?

 

[RocketMedic]

Its not your emergency. Be proactive and avoid the bad life choices that put a lot of our patients where they are.