“Situations requiring life-support first aid have been uncannily sparse in the 15,000-person BU community. Of over 200 medical calls logged by the BU Police last year… BU requires neither those responsible for the 6,000 dorm residents nor the BU police to know advanced first aid…”
“The gentle man and quiet doctor who has struck terror, nonetheless, into the hearts of many a paramedic student who wished not to be asked to interpret a particular EKG strip, sat with me for an hour of reflection on his role in EMS in Colorado.”
“It wasn’t a love of the macabre that nailed the lid on Rance Bennett's interest in hearses. Actually, it was a love for classic cars. It all started in about 1990, he said, while thumbing through a book… While not on everyone's top 10, the book sparked the flame of passion that led Bennett to search for abandoned or forgotten hearses.”
“Using street smarts goes beyond dealing with nasty people, messy situations or chaotic scenes. Indeed, one subtle goal of any comprehensive safety program is to wage "germ warfare" on the many microscopic threats that arise in our hazardous line of work.”
“In the worldwide scramble to respond to the incredible threat of COVID-19, emergency services have risen to the occasion. Of course, we have. We always do.”
“Good scene control is an aspect of prehospital care that is difficult to describe in words. When a scene is well-controlled, things get done seemingly by magic. It is far easier to detect poor scene control, because nothing seems to go right.”
“The first thing is the light, opaque like glacial runoff. At first, I don't even recognize this murky peculiarity as light, but I can see that it is somehow framed, organized…. After some time, it occurs to me: it's a window. The thing hovers, open to the stars of a moonless night, or maybe the faintest infusion of pre-dawn.”
“Have you ever asked a question and then received an answer that made you wonder what the other person heard? The response seemed to have little or nothing to do with the information you were seeking. What in the world was the other person thinking, to give a response so unrelated to what you asked?”
“OLD. An unpopular concept. OLD. A frightening word. OLD. A negative stereotype. OLD . It will never happen to you? If it does not, then you will have met the even worse alternative.”
“Did your mom ever claim to have eyes in the back of her head? I kept my child stumped with that one for years. She was perpetually confounded I could seemingly have my attention elsewhere, yet always catch her when she was up to some mischief or danger.”
“I stand in the calm of my kitchen at home, now that the whistle of the teakettle has been silenced. Although I am awake, I am not yet sharp in my mind. Tea will help: the momentum of the boil flings itself at my sleepiness even as it slows when I lift the kettle from the burner, tip it, pour water from it over the teabag. Steam spirals, like prayers on the wind.”
“In 1983, former firefighter and paramedic Jeffrey Mitchell, PhD, introduced critical incident stress debriefing (CISD) to the emergency care world… [it] is one of the few things we, who give so much to others, can give ourselves.”
“You breathe in the fresh morning air and listen to the iconic clip-clop as you walk from the stables. You rise into the saddle and gather the reins… Anyone lucky enough to spend time with horses knows the special magic of partnership with a large animal. To ride is the chance to skim the earth at a gallop, or to fly together over a jump.”
“Access to the medical system for the public inebriate often follows the usual pattern for anyone out in public in distress: call an ambulance… A prehospital team soon finds itself en route on a call which has been designated as "man down."
“When I was a kid, there was always something I thought I needed. My birthday and Christmas were harvest days. Later, when I could earn my own money, I realized with joy that I could accumulate things all by myself. When I bought a dish drainer, some pots and pans, silverware and plates and glasses to outfit my first apartment, the checker whistled and said, “looks like someone’s setting up a household.” What a feeling of pride and maturity swept over me!”
“Us and them. They're easily recognized. They all have numbers. In fact, they have several numbers, starting with the county call number on down through the address, date of birth, and medical insurance number. These numbers make the people aspect of emergency medicine tolerable so the rest of the job can be enjoyable.”
A muzzle flash lit up my tent. The shotgun erupted again without warning, from just a few feet away. Flattening myself to the ground, I remember three rapid-fire thoughts: “I don’t want to get shot!” Then: “I’m the medic. I don’t want anyone to get shot.” And, as another blast shattered the night, and men shouted and raced across a meadow littered with volcanic boulders: “Someone is at least going to get cut or break a leg on those rocks.”
It was midafternoon Wednesday in January when the phone rang. The winter light through the windows was clinical white, and I was alone in the house. It was the doctor… “ Just wanted to let you know...” he began. I could sense warmth in his voice, a smile. I sat up straighter, pressed the receiver against my ear. “Your pregnancy test was positive.”
“Sweat stings my eyes, and my breath comes hard at 4,100 feet, but damned if I'll quit sawing. Muscle burn in my arm and shoulder confirms the toughness of the foot-thick cedar crushing the barbed wire fence that we're here to fix… "You want a break?" calls Jim from upslope, where he and his wife, Peg, are grappling with a tangle of wire. Behind them, the fence line threads to the horizon. After this section is repaired and restretched, we'll follow it up…”
“There's a notion that needs dispelling, because it's disabling for some people, and primarily untrue. That is the idea that "we save lives." Its a seductive, thrilling concept, guaranteed to help raise our collective self-esteem (if only superficially)… It's time to deflate the myth. We have focused for too long on the idea that we save lives and have therefore developed inaccurate perceptions of EMS. It is time to recognize that what we actually do…”