MAE JULIAN
Dear Readers,
As you know, I worked the streets of the west end of Louisville for five years, on the night shift, where everything happened. Shootings were a nightly event, along with every kind of trauma and disaster. I had the opportunity to read an essay written by a paramedic. I thought it was one of my old partners, because every single scene is one that I have been in, but I have not been able to confirm he wrote it. Still, I want to pass it along for you to read. I think it is important, because we don’t refer to firefighters as fire truck drivers, and “ambulance driver” does not in any way describe the lifesaving and dangerous jobs done by those who respond to emergencies, and perform life-saving interventions in the back of ambulances.
So, here is a paramedic’s story:
ALL BECAUSE I AM JUST AN AMBULANCE DRIVER
“I am just an ambulance driver, you say, as I am on the scene of a vehicle accident that has a high school student trapped in the submerged SUV in the creek. I’m standing in chest deep water, freezing rain falling, and stinging as it hits the exposed parts of my body. I hold her head above the water to keep her from drowning until the Jaws of Life could set her free…but…I’m just an ambulance driver.
I comfort an 89-year old woman who just watched my partner and I cover the face of her husband as he lay dead on their bathroom floor.
I am on the scene at another MVA with a mother trapped upside down in her car with her dead son’s body laying on top of her. Without a second thought for my own safety, I crawl into the wreckage to immobilize her neck and spine, speaking to calm her.
I get called away from my just-prepared meal to respond to a call re: an unconscious person, to a house with no porch light on, no numbers, nobody waiting to signal us in and they bitch because we took too long only to find out the “unconscious” patient left in his own vehicle ten minutes ago…but we walk away from the verbal lashing.
I stand in the middle of the street at midnight on the wrong side of town trying to staunch the bleeding of a 19-year old shooting victim with the possible assailants still in the area, but we never break stride because this kid’s life is in our hands.
Or, how about doing chest compressions on a 16-year old girl who decided this life was more than she could take. Her family screaming at us to help, as she thought that we were the ones who did this to her. We start IV’s and intubate her, and do CPR, in an attempt to save her life.
I get kicked, hit, spit on, bled on, puked on and cussed at. I look into the eyes of a lifeless child at 7 AM and by 8 AM I’m holding my little child tighter knowing she understands nothing about what happened. I have hundreds of hours of classroom time, years of in-the-field experience and have challenged death and won.
I’ve helped the helpless
I’ve neglected my family for yours
I organize in complete chaos
I eat meals if I eat at all
I work with no sleep for long periods of time
I miss birthdays, holidays, and school functions
I put myself in harm’s way for total strangers on a daily basis
All because I am just an ambulance driver. ”
I have also disarmed a drunk slashing towards me with a knife. And, yet, when people ask me about working for EMS, I have to tell them it was the best and most rewarding job I ever had.
Many blessings,
Mae Julian
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