Changing Decisions for Life

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February 4th, 2011 admin 0 Comments

Each ambulance call was a new adventure; you never knew to what you were responding. The information the dispatcher received was not necessarily the situation you found when you arrived.

I remember an ambulance call where we were told that there was a vehicle off the road with no one around. This was a seemingly frustrating waste of time. Why bother us when no one was around the vehicle. Should we go or should we just stay back. We opted to go and as we arrived at the area and saw the vehicle off the road; we began our assessment when to our surprise, there was someone there. They were under the car and they were very injured. What we grouchily responded to as a waste of our time, turned out to be a life changing decision.

We didn’t question some of the seemingly nonsense calls after that.

How many people can boast that they’ve helped deliver a baby without the presence of a doctor or nurse? Delivering a baby was one of the most frightening as well as one of the most exciting calls an Emergency Medical person can experience. Instead of being responsible for one life, you are now responsible for two lives.

There are few people who make an impact on your life and ones you will never forget.

In the 25 years of working, I’ve had many experiences that have changed my life as well as the life of the patient.

Working in the back of the ambulance was my specialty. Most of us have little habits that we do without consciously doing them. My little habit was something I have always done without ever consciously knowing I was doing it. One day, I had a man approach me and said “you’re the lady who held my hand all the way to the hospital”. He then went on to tell me how comforting that little gesture was for him.

From then on, I started to pay attention to my behavior and found that this man was correct. On each and every ambulance call, I found that whenever I had a moment and wasn’t actively working on the patient, I was putting my hand on the patient’s arm or hand. I was giving that patient a little reassuring touch. Although this wasn’t much, this was a life changing decision.