Someone said this to me the other day. Again, a few days later, the same thing was said with slightly different verbiage, but the message was the same.

I'm not cut out for EMS. I'm not the right "caliber" of person to do this job. I get "wonky" after bad calls. I'm not the one for the job.

Wait a second? Then what was up with that baby in 2009 who stopped breathing? Why was I able to walk into that house, take that small, precious child into my arms and without…

In the EMS and Fire Service, we see things that would ruin anyone else's week. Sometimes we don't see things because God doesn't put us on every scene that our brothers and sisters are on, and sometimes those calls are just as bad as the calls we do replay in our minds. Listening to the familiar voices on the radio at the scene of an especially bad MVA. Hearing the requests for additional resources. Hearing the request for the coroner, knowing that your brothers and sisters are dealing with…

EMS

To me it’s a verb. It’s the action. It’s providing comfort to someone on the scariest day or night of their life. It’s the want, the drive, the need to be present in someone’s emergency. It’s the insane desire to make things okay for someone else. And if you can’t make things okay, make them as close to okay as you can.

It’s a look. Your patient who has laid in bed for 3 days with no one realizing they haven’t been going out or doing their usual tasks. The look in…

To work in EMS, you must possess the following qualities:

1. Must be willing to leave your family at the dinner table in the middle of a meal to go and save someone else’s family.

2. Must not be squeamish around blood, saliva, snot, urine, and use your imagination to fill in this gap with any other bodily fluid that might come flying in your direction.

3. Must have the understanding that not every call you go on is going to result in everyone leaving the scene…