Our dept. responded on mutual aid to a car accident phoned in by the victim and said she was trapped. The location was vague, and she said she was trapped. In a couple of minutes, our dispatcher put out over the air that her car was on fire and she was screaming for help. The primary dept. is all volunteer and have to respond to the firehouse to get a rig. Our crash truck with the jaws and a county sheriff were first on scene and the car was totally engulfed. Their engine got there shortly after and extinguished the flames, but it was to late. In our debriefing with our asst. chaplin, it was pointed out that we "did what we could" . Sometimes it is all we can do, but it does not make it easier. Prayers for both our depts. and of course the woman and her family are requested, but it never gets any easier to say,"It's All We could Do"
This sounds very familiar I have that almost exact story only it was a male in his 40's. Sometimes only GOD knows why but the thing is you responded and you did all you can do because thats what we do every day.
God bless, Kurt
I can't agree more lloyd. I was raised to believe that God doesn't give us anything He doesn't think we can handle. Having faith and placing your heart in his hands will help you to handle the most difficult situations in your career and in your life.
You can't view these types of situations as personal failings. Sometimes there is just nothing you can do. The first lesson taught in my EMT class 12 years ago was that you can't save them all. Unfortunately, it is a reality of the business.
Lloyd, On a brighter note the other day we went to a call of a man down and he was laying face down on the parking lot in cardiac arrest. I've none cpr now many times and it usually doesn't help in most cases. I rode with the ambulance and this time when we pulled into the ER this man in his upper 70s was talking to me. WOW!
Somebody upstairs has a plan for the ones we save and the ones we don't.
Kurt
And a harsh reality that is. I guess we all need to be reminded of that and it is the reality of this that shows us we are not God, He is the one in charge. Thank you brothers, stay safe.
Permalink Reply by emtp on September 1, 2007 at 12:57am
Sometimes we do all that we can do, but it seems like that is never good enough.
I try to remember that no matter how old the patient is or what the circumstances are, if it is their time to go home to God, nothing that we can do will change that. Yes, it is definately tough, but it will tear your heart and soul up if you always think, "what if".
Hang in there!
Permalink Reply by Matt on September 11, 2007 at 9:41pm
All of us want to save them all, but in the end all we can to is work to the extent of our training, and just as long as you did that we should be able to sleep at night....but none of us can...The Lord puts us in these situations for us to learn from and make us stronger men and women.