veganchameleon asked: Approximately how many lives have you directly saved in the course of your duties as an EMT? Approximately how many people did not live in spite of your direct efforts as an EMT?
Hm. I’ve saved somewhere between 4 and 10 people. I’ve watched thousands die!!!
Or…I’ve probably witnessed, over my seven years as an EMT, maybe 12 people pass away. Most of the ones we couldn’t save were heart attacks. Actually, all of them were.
Thing of it is, when you save someone, you feel directly responsible. ”WE saved them!! Wooooo!”
But when you lose someone, you usually feel it was “their time”, that there wasn’t anything that would’ve saved them. We do everything we can, but sometimes there’s just no coming back. And heart attacks, a full arrest where the heart has stopped, that’s a hard one, man. Lots of times you’re in their home, surrounded by their family, you don’t feel pressure, you’re too in the moment, working it by the numbers, running through the steps you’ve been taught, focused.
But at a certain point, you stop. Often you get something, a weak pulse, some hint of life, and you can load them up, put them in the ambulance, continue working as you drive to the hospital.
But sometimes you don’t get a hint, there’s nothing there, and you have to break it to the family.
The hardest part of the job isn’t witnessing death. It’s being there for misery, families, friends, the patients themselves. That weighs on you.
Happy Sunday!
