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I wish you knew....
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May 25, 2008 9:05 pm
857 Views
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Dedicated to Paramedics, Fire and Police Officers and their Dispatchers:
I wish you could comprehend a wife's horror at 6 am as I check her husband of 40 years for a pulse and find none. I start CPR anyway, hoping to bring him back while knowing intuitively it is too late, but wanting his wife and family to know everything possible was done to try and save his life.
I wish you knew the unique smell of burning insulation, the taste of soot-filled mucus, the feeling of intense heat through your turnout gear, the sound of flames crackling, the eeriness of being able to see absolutely nothing in dense smoke - sensations that I've become too familiar with.
I wish you could read my mind as I respond to a call, "Is this a false alarm or a working fire? How is the building constructed? What hazards await me? Is anyone trapped?". Or to call and ask "What is wrong with the patient? Is it minor or life threatening?" Is the caller really in distress or is he waiting for us with a 2x4 or gun?
I wish you could be in the emergency room, as a Doctor pronounces dead the beautiful two-year old girl that I have been trying to save during the past 25 minutes, knowing she will never go on her first date or say the words "I love you Mommy" ever again.
I wish you could know the frustration I feel in the cab of the ambulance or engine or cruiser, the driver with his foot pressing down hard on the pedal, my arm tugging again and again at the air horn chain, as you fail to yield the right-of-way at an intersection or in traffic. When you need us however, your first comment upon our arrival will be, "What took you so long to get here?!"
I wish you could know my thoughts as I help extricate a girl of teenage years from the remains of her automobile. What if this was my daughter, sister, my girlfriend or a friend? What will her parent's reactions be when they open the door to find a Police Officer standing there with hat in hand?
I wish you could know how it feels to walk in the back door and greet my parents and family, not having the heart to tell them that I nearly did not come back from the last call.
I wish you could know how it feels dispatching Officers, Firefighters and Paramedics out and how our hearts drop when we call for them and no one answers back, or to answer the bone-chilling 911 call of a child or wife needing assistance.
I wish you could feel the hurt as people verbally and sometimes physically abuse us or belittle what we do, or as they express their attitudes of "It will never happen to me".
I wish you could realize the physical, emotional and mental drain of missed meals, lost sleep and forgone social activities, in addition to all the tragedy my eyes have seen.
I wish you could know the Brotherhood and self-satisfaction of helping save a life or preserving someone's property, or being able to be there in time of crisis, or creating order from total chaos.
I wish you could understand what it feels like to have a little boy tugging at your arm asking, "Is my Mommy okay?", while not being able to look in his eyes without tears falling from your own and not knowing what to say. Or to have to hold back a long time friend who watches CPR being done on his buddy as they take him away in the ambulance. You know all along he did not have his seat belt on - this is a sensation that I have become all too familiar with.
Unless you have lived with this kind of life, you will never truly understand or appreciate who I am, who we are, or what our job really means to us...I wish you could though.
PLEASE APPRECIATE AND SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL PARAMEDICS, 911 DISPATCHERS, FIREFIGHTERS, and LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS.
ONE DAY THEY'LL PROBABLY BE SAVING YOUR PROPERTY OR YOUR OWN LIFE. WHEN YOU SEE THEM COMING WITH LIGHTS FLASHING, MOVE OUT OF THE WAY, STOP YOUR VEHICLE and THEN PRAY FOR THEM.
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