Not a virgin anymore

Some people say you always remember your, "First time."
It's an enlightening experience -- a chance for exploration, a chance to test your skills, a chance to wander into the unknown.

The perfect description would be: Sweaty palms, an increasing heart rate, and a surge of adrenaline. Sometimes, if you do everything right... a pleasurable outcome is possible.

My EMT professor describes the situation as, "Hours of boredom followed by minutes of sheer terror."

If at this point you still believe I am referring to sex, that's okay. But this is where I leave you behind.

I am finishing my training as an EMT-B (Emergency Medical Technician - Basic), and today was my first clinical ride along. It marks an important day. A normal, mundane, and routine day for a practiced EMT but quite the opposite for this newbie. Today I was exposed to the underlying concept and execution of emergency health care. If health care was a military, EMS (Emergency medical services) would be the front lines. The marines -- the first troops into battle. If they fail, the patient dies. Period. No physician contact. It's quite a daunting task if you sit and think about it, but after meeting many of the front line health care warriors we call EMT's, paramedics, and firefighters, I have concluded that these amazing people do very little, "Sitting and thinking", and a lot of executing and responding in the fastest and most effective way possible. In short, these guys mean business. Today I was happy to be a part of that.

Nothing can describe the sound.
It's very distinct, loud, and almost scary.

*Ring Ring Ring*

Okay, I guess it's possible to describe it. It's just a telephone call. But at the McCormicks station where I was stationed, (and every other EMS station) the sound of the phone echoes into everyone's ears, and is the warning beacon. All unnecessary chatter stops, and the world seems to freeze in time as a room of people watch someone pick up the phone and describe the call. In under one minute, the squad designated on the call is in the ambulance and on their way.

Frantically jumping into the ambulance, I felt my heart race. As the sound of the siren met my ears, adrenaline pumped from my adrenal glands and filled my bloodstream like never before. Quite frankly, I have never felt more of an adrenaline rush in my life. The driver speeds down the streets, turning fast corners, drives in the opposite lanes, dodges traffic and turns the wheel aggressively like an angry maniac with a red glare of concentration in his eyes. Sitting next to the driver, another EMT reads the address on his pager and uses a map to coordinate the route verbally with skill and precision. It was beautiful -- two people working in perfect unison, speaking quickly but in a calm and controlled manner. Sitting in the seat behind them doing nothing but observing and picking my nose, I was in awe. It was like witnessing an emergency in the movies, but it had a much more simple feeling to it. It wasn't dramatic or epic with amazing heroism. No Hollywood bullshit, someone's life was on the line. We were responding. That is it. If you intend on going into the health care field and believe the cliche stereotype that everything is dramatic like ER shows, or House M.D, you're in for a fucking surprise. Just quit now. You're wasting your time.

I would describe the calls I was on in more depth, but it's 2:20 am and I just pulled a 12 hour shift with the EMT's. In short, I saw a GSW (Gun shot wound); We actually didn't pick up the call, but one of our crews brought the guy in bleeding with his lung sticking out of his chest cavity. He also had deep lacerations from what looked like a knife attack. On the gurney I could see the pasta had had for lunch that came out of his stomach because his stomach ripped open. We also cleaned the gurney, which was filled with a pool of blood - soaked in it. We also responded to a hypoglycemic patient who was in a diabetic emergency. It was amazing when the paramedic started an IV (I helped a little! lol) and pumped glucose into her veins. The effect was almost instant, she regained consciousness and asked where she was. Also an epileptic seizure patient with trauma injury and 5 inch laceration across his face, we had a full-arrest (cardiac arrest) call, but it was canceled on scene. The guy might have been dead on arrival, or it might have been a false response, but I was so disappointed. I feel so confident with my CPR skills that I wanted to perform on a full arrest patient for the first time, but I guess there will be more opportunities.

To conclude this mental summary I am going to tell you the most important thing I gained today:


"Respect"
for the men and women who respond to life threatening calls everyday. I salute them.