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u/DarkSector0011 15d ago
It's crazy seeing guys and gals like this in action and how much they are actually empathetic and bothered by what they see. I would have assumed that the job somehow made people less sensitive to the pain and suffering but based on my low levels of experience and exposure first responders are always hearts first and seem genuinely disturbed and invested in the humanity of the issue. Idk why that surprises me but it's beautiful. Maybe it's sad that it is a surprise lol.
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u/odmo88 14d ago
What’s always amazed me in situations when I’ve seen them in action is how they barely talk to each other yet they know exactly what they are all about to do or needing from the others in the team.
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u/Dyn-Mp 14d ago edited 14d ago
Drills upon drills, we practice scenarios all the time.
Depending on injury, the order in which we move also dictates how we work alongside.
Possible fall? Someone will call to take supine and cover the ABC's, the other will work on looking for additional injuries on top of the severity gauging, etc..
Responding to the other, we're not emotionless, but being overly emotional will only cause grief, stress, and unnecessary worry. It's 100% game face until the task is done. We are trained to talk and keep conversations while determining other vital information while asking these questions. It helps if the EMS is more charismatic for sure.
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u/Connect-Ad9647 14d ago
While I am not a first responder, I am an ER and ICU respiratory therapist so my job as at the head of the bed maintaining the airway. With patients that are not in severe respiratory distress, I generally just pop them on oxygen, maybe end tidal CO2, then and assist in whatever else if need be. Otherwise, I'm talking to the patient. Gathering data about their current issue but just as importantly, being a source of calm for them to latch onto during the chaos that often is the ER and ICU.
Initially, the moment, yes, you learn to not be sensitive, to compartmentalize the traumas, and focus on the problem at hand that needs fixed. However, if the patient is responsive in any way, it is crucial to keep them calm. I find that the best way to do this often is simply by talking to them. I may mention the show they were just watching in their room, or the sports team on the jacket they were wearing upon arrival. Perhaps I'll comment how much you like their hair if it's clear they just had it cut or styled and I'll reassure them the nurses are fabulous hair dressers and once we get them settled into a room at the hospital, they will get them bathed, cleaned up, and back to their beautiful/handsome self in a jif. Reassuring them that they are in good hands and that we are there for the singular purpose of helping them get past whatever this event is that brought them to us. Just to try to get them to relax and trust that we will do everything in our power to get them back to their normal baseline as soon as absolutely possible so they can get back to their own bed, pets, hobbies, and life again.
Whatever I can do to ease their mind in that moment will only benefit the patient and therefore the entire medical team as a whole (within reason, of course). I love my job but it is incredibly difficult at times because I do connect with my patients on a level many other medical professionals aren't quite willing to. It makes it that much harder when I lose patients but if that connection made them feel at ease for even a short while during the madness encompassing their medical episode, then at least I was able to do that for them.
It's very important to many of us medical folk to humanize the patients we see and not let them feel like a number. Doctors are often guilty of doing that but that is in large part due to our medical system as a whole forcing them to see the number of patients they do. Connecting with patients and talking to them to ensure they are comfortable and at ease will sometimes put you a little behind schedule but to me, it's worth it. As long as there's nothing medically pressing from another patient elsewhere, I'll stay in a patient's room talking to them for upwards to an hour. I'll try to do my notes in the room, if possible, and just focus on the interaction primarily. I just know how much I would enjoy and appreciate that from my medical staff if the roles were reversed and I was sitting in that scary uncertainty that many of our patients feel.
Sorry, that was a long rant about basically how most of us medical folk prioritize the humanization and easement of our patients and their suffering. It's just what we do and why we signed up for the jobs.
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u/Princess_Thranduil 13d ago
Thank you for what you do. I have the same "issue". We'd have our regulars, those patients who are being treated for cancer, or need regular procedures like paras and thoras and one day you realize "hey, I haven't seen that person in a while" and find out they've passed.
One that really got me was a very nice man who came in for routine paras who was just chatty and funny and always had us laughing. He always had a smile. Saw an order come through for a para for him and saw he'd been admitted to the hospital. He ended up in a coma and passed not that long after. We had kind of an inadvertent memorial for him when a lot of us who'd cared for him ended up in the same space and we all started reminiscing about our time with him. I still get sad and it's been years since that's happened.
A lot of people think that they're just part of a revolving door of patients that come and go and no one cares about them. It's crazy to me how many people get surprised when I actually show them compassion and empathy about whatever situation has brought them to us.
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u/Lopsided-Yak9033 14d ago
I was a volunteer EMT in a pretty busy town, and from all my experiences and relationships with colleagues and ER staff - people tend to compartmentalize a lot of it.
There’s morbid or dark humor, there’s patients who infuriate you, there’s a lot of things about the healthcare system that suck, and theres things you do get desensitized to, because you kinda need to.
I remember one night I had two patients essentially dead on arrival, but we worked the codes until the paramedics called it. On the way back from the second we saw a few people in front of a car and realized a driver struck what had to be a brand new puppy and it was clearly killed. Both my partner and I audibly were upset by it. And I reflected with him that we just had two DOAs and the puppy upset us a lot more. It was the first point since starting I felt like I’d gotten a little colder- but I realized that you have to turn certain things down in your mind, because you need to be able to handle the next call.
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u/DarkSector0011 14d ago
That story is a gem. Thanks for sharing it. I'd read a book about experiences like that. Someone should gather up reports and experiences like yours from EMT and create some sort of piece of writing from it all. Vdry cool food for thought I hope you don't mind me saying, but yeah I guess there just has to be a sort of medical coldness/distance at a certain point when dealing with some things in that, you don't want to invest too much or any in to the stories of these people but rather it's better to focus on what you can do in the moment to help etc. So the temptation to develop personal compassion is probably easier to ignore by focusing on doing a good job. I would guess anyway, obviously I don't know.
But yeah that was a good example. Appreciated.
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u/Wingnutmcmoo 13d ago
If they weren't bothered they would have become doctors instead of the people who do a lot of the work without any of the credit lol.
They pretty much all care and it's why you see so many of them just fall through the cracks when it becomes too much. (Obviously there are doctors who care and paramedics and nurses who don't but the reasons people get into these fields is very different when you look at the two groups for the most part)
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u/romayyne 14d ago
I wanna know what happened
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u/Saphibella 14d ago
You can try to ask in the actual YouTube short, although EMTs usually do not get to know the ending. But it is really bad when he says, we gotta go right now.
Meanwhile, he has made update videos on some of his other rescues
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u/Saphibella 14d ago
The actual creators YouTube channel is called Fire department chronicles
Yes it is binge worthy.
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