So, yeah, the other thing I wanted to talk about tonight.
I work part time as an EMT here in Brooklyn. No secrets or big revelations there. Most of the time, we’re just shuttling folks to the hospital. Not to downplay what we do, but let’s face it, not every job is of the “Third Watch” or “ER” or “Saved” variety. Sometimes, though, I encounter jobs — people — that make me step back and think about some bigger-picture things.
Tonight, for instance, I had two jobs back to back. In the second, I actually got to watch as the patient whom I had been ventilating came backfully from respiratory arrest after the medics administered Narcan. No 911 call, no us, no medics, no way that patient would have been alive longer than a few minutes. So we helped turn a life around — or, well, we helped it continue where it may not have continued much longer at all.
The earlier call, though … two folks had been eating an early supper, and with no warning, one of them collapsed. We worked with the medics again, who were able to use a pacing wire to keep the patient’s heart beating at a life-sustaining rhythm, but I the outcome here wasn’t quite as positive as the other job had been.
Imagine, then, if you’re just out to brunch with your spouse or lover … and they just go. Sure, healthcare providers can try for the save, but sometimes, it’s that person’s time and there’s nothing we can do. Your special person is gone and while you were just living a normal day with him or her, eating your eggs and bacon, or maybe some pancakes, you have no idea that 5 minutes from then he or she would be gone. Did you say everything you wanted to? Does he or she know how you feel?
Maybe I’m hung up a bit, but that image is really sticking with me. One minute there, the next gone. I don’t want to live a life full of unsaids and I-hope-they-know’s.
Or, maybe it’s just very late and I’m tired. Hmm. Off to bed.
