EPTEMS week is dedicated to those individuals who risk theirs to save yours, who work in adverse weather conditions because there is no calling in sick. It's a career that balances absolute miracles and unimaginable tragedies. This is my hats off to those of you who work in EMS; Fire Fighters, EMTs, Paramedics, Medical First Responders, and everyone else.
The following was taken from a Facebook post I stumbled upon the other day:
Standing in chest deep water, freezing rain falling and stinging as it hits the exposed parts of your body. Holding the head above water to keep her head from drowning until rescue could get there to cut her free, but I'm Just An Ambulance Driver
On a scene at a motor vehicle accident a mother trapped upside down in her car and her dead sons body laying on top of her without a second thought for my safety crawling inside the wreckage to take C spine control and to calm the frantic lady, but I'm Just An Ambulance Driver
Confronting a 89 year old lady who just watched for hours me and my partner do our best to save her husband of 64 years as he lay dead in the bathroom floor, but I'm Just An Ambulance Driver
Doing chest compressions on a young girl who decided this life was more than she could take. Her family screaming at us to save her as though we were the ones who did this to her. Her lifeless body flailing about as the tubes goes in and IV's are started, my arm and back burning from the pain of 30 min. of CPR never once giving up, hoping she would make it through and over come whatever lead her to this decision she made, but I'm just An Ambulance Driver
Standing in the middle of a street at midnight on the wrong side of the town trying to save the life of a 19 year old shooting victim with multiple bleeding points with occasional bullets wizzing past our heads never breaking stride because this kids life is in our hands, but I'm Just An Ambulance Driver
Called away from a just prepared meal to B.F.E to a house with no numbers, no porch light on, nobody waiting to sign you in and they yell at you because you took too long only to find out the pt. left P.O.V ten min. ago so we just grin and smile and walk away from the verbal lashing only because, I'm Just An Ambulance Driver
Death is all around me and still I go home to live my life, I get kicked at, spit on, hit, bleed on, puked on, I look into the eyes of lifeless child at 7am and by 8 I'm holding my child a little tighter and they know nothing about what just happened.
I have hundreds of hours of classroom time, years of field experience. I've challenged death and won. I've helped the homeless, I've neglected my family for yours. I find comfort in complete chaos. I eat cold meals if get to eat at all, I work with no sleep for days at a time, I miss birthdays, holidays, and school functions. I put myself in harms way for a total stranger on a daily basis.
ALL BECAUSE I'M JUST AN AMBULANCE DRIVER
I am an Ambulance Driver! I drive 70 mph through congested traffic full of people who refuse to yield the right of way while my partner stands unrestrained in the back of this screaming land missile saving your loved ones life. Never once does he question my driving, he knows that at the end of this shift he will go home to his family safely because I'm an ambulance driver.
To end this blog off, I'm going to post a video of FDNYs Farooq Muhammad.
