Just Another Day In EMS
I
delivered a baby on the ambulance stretcher
I baptized a newborn who's life ended before it began.
I
hugged a frightened child.
I was kissed by an intoxicated old man.
I held
the hand of a teenage girl while she delivered a 3 pound baby.
I listened to the mournful squeak of a stretcher being wheeled to the
morgue.
I
gently stroked the fragile hand of a 102 year old woman.
I hesitated at the outreached hand of a 300 pound prisoner in handcuffs.
I
trudged for ten hours in my boots.
I had a teenager vomit on those same boots.
I
rubbed the feverish body of a 14-year-old cancer patient.
I cradled the ice-cold hand of a child hit by a car.
I was
referred to as "an angel of mercy".
I was called every four-letter word in the book.
I
always see fear in people's eyes.
I never see joy or relief.
I
listened to a tormented voice pleading for the preservation of life.
I heard the threatening words of one bent on self destruction.
I
spoke with a girl who was hoping she had the flu, not a pregnancy.
I see innocent people hurt by a drunk driver, and the drunk driver is
never hurt.
I
marveled at the genius of a cardiologist.
I saw a 12-year-old boy who shot himself in the head, and the gun was
still loaded at his feet.
I
talked in circles with a schizophrenic person.
I was horrified at the battered body of a child whose parents were
incapable of love.
I
gazed at a horribly burned body.
I shuddered at a cold water drowning.
I see
women beaten up by their spouses, but they never press charges.
I walk into houses and do CPR with family watching over my shoulder in
tears.
I
arrive at serious auto accidents, and the first words I hear are, "Am
I going to die?"
I find out hours later they did die.
I
listen to the repeated question "Why?", from a family devastated
by death.
I search my soul for the answers to their question.
This is just another day in EMS.
Derek
Perry, EMT I
Foothill Ambulance Co.
Sacramento, CA