Post by thread:[OT] Feeling better about you job

If you find that your job 'gets you down' on occasion, read this. It's very uplifting, in a terrible way. Very few would have a job that would make them feel worse than this man's must, on occasion. But, very few would have a job that would on other occasions make them feel better. I wouldn't want to do his job - but you can understand why people do it. Start on June 06. " It’s raining. The Saab ... " http://medicscribe.blogspot.com/

It's hard to explain, because the bad calls are really really bad, but the good calls make up for it. Still, there's a lot of residual stress. Talking about it helps. My first medical call was for two drunks who had been playing tug of war with a shotgun. We did the best we could. Then there was the guy who got in between two rail car couplings when the train was hooking up. We were able to keep him consious long enough to see his family, but when they uncoupled the cars, he bled out in seconds. The young mother we worked on, with a problematic delivery, where we had to carry her out through a mile or so of 3'+ snow. That one turned out well. Kid's probably in her teens now. One particularly difficult extraction of a young lady, where one of our guys got pinned between jaws, and a tree. He had to decide whether to let off, and let the car crush her again, or keep going and risk a crushed hip or pelvis. Shouldn't have gotten into that situation in the first place, but you have to take what you have. He kept going of course, he got lucky, and the bruises eventually went away. These things stay with you.

On 7/2/06, David VanHorn <spam_OUTdvanhornTakeThisOuTmicrobrix.com> wrote: > It's hard to explain, because the bad calls are really really bad, but the > good calls make up for it. > > Still, there's a lot of residual stress. Talking about it helps. I find the faces of people are what stick in my mind, not the injury sites. The phrase "pain mask" is pretty accurate. Also the look in their eyes. Josh -- A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools. -Douglas Adams

>I wouldn't want to do his job - but you can >understand why people do it. I have nothing but the highest regard for all the people in the various rescue and medical services. They do seem to be rather undervalued and s*** on from a great height here in the UK.