I watched the news last night. The usual chaos and tragedy unfolded on the screen and I found myself wishing that some of it was mine. I do not care to be on TV but I longed for the rush and the excitement that is only brought on by catastrophe. It was a relatively busy day but it was filled with the frustrating and the mundane. As paramedics we think of ourselves as highly trained medical professionals. Our customers, in general, seem to think that we are a better way to get to the doctor than a taxi because we do not ask for money on the spot. True emergencies occur, but on days like yesterday it seems like it only happens on the news. A paramedic somewhere took care of a young man who accidentally choked to death on his headphone cord. The young woman who crashed her car on the highway was rushed to the hospital by people who do my job somewhere else. I gave the guy with chronic back pain, who ran out of vicodin, a ride to the hospital.
Someone who does not work in the emergency medical service might say that a day without tragedy is a good day. I go to work hoping for two things. The first is to take care of patients who really need an ambulance and the second is to experience the rush, challenge, and intensity of a true emergency. In this business these desires are inextricably intertwined with tragedy, death, and chaos. I am like a soldier who is excited to go to war. Are we born with this infatuation with the suffering of others or is created by the environment in which we work? This question deserves consideration, for the sake of a paramedics humanity.
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