Relief

In the fire service, there are a multitude of calls that we answer on a daily and even a weekly basis. Most of these emergency calls are EMS calls. Even with quite a few years of experience running medical calls, I still find myself learning something new each run. Most medical calls are routine, however, they can turn for the worse within seconds. I respond to most of these calls routinely, as I would any other emergency call. As far as medical calls go, I don't play around when it comes to kids. As a father myself, I understand the importance of help arriving quickly. Not to mention that an adult death is already a tragedy, but when it's a child...it's a whole different scene. We can remain rock solid when looking at the destruction that was once someone's everything, we can be rock solid as a family mourns the passing of another loved one who is an adult. I don't care what anyone says, how long anyone has been doing this, or what kind of personality you have... The death of any child that we are called to care for is going to affect us in some way.  Fortunately, I have never lost a child that I have worked on.

My mind wanders back, today, to a medical call that I ran some time ago involving a baby only weeks old. The call came in as difficulty breathing and turning colors, I wasted no time getting myself to the scene. When I pulled up to the house, the mother brought me her son, who couldn't have been more than a couple weeks old. She told me that his breathing had only slightly improved, but his color had still not returned. My first instinct was that I did not want to attempt to work on this little man outside in the sun, so I shuttled us back indoors. This was probably the first infant call I had ran on my own since I had become certified. Granted, I had back up coming, but the initial contact was still just me. As I asked the mother to hand me the baby, I became instantly terrified. "Is this beautiful little boy going to die in my arms??", I thought, "Would I be able to live with that? How?". I went back to my training, all those years of EMS classes. I noticed first, that his neck position was not ideal, maybe even restricting the airway slightly. I laid him down on the bed, cradling his neck with my arm, and put it in a position that I knew would open the airway fully. In less than a minute, his color had returned. The breathing was still not ideal, but he was breathing.  

The battalion chief walked in at this moment and began doing his thing. Being more experienced, he asked to hold the baby to provide additional care. Not long after, and out of nowhere, I heard one of the most relieving sounds in my entire career...the small cry of an infant being woke up. His eyes were open, he was moving, and he was even making little sounds. I have never felt more relieved on a call in my entire life. Being as humble as I am, I couldn't help but feel extremely good about the deed I had just done as I drove back. That is probably one of the only times that I can remember feeling like I actually made a difference.  

In all the stress of our daily lives, with a million and a half things going on...we can sometimes become overwhelmed. With what seems like the weight of the entire world on your shoulders, there is no lighter feeling that comes when you hear the soft cry of a baby telling you everything is alright. There's no better outcome than a job well done. 

Keep fighting the good fight....