overly emotional after lecture from Coroner

[Siffaliss]

I'd say I'm with Herbie and Lone on this one. I don't see the school showing scene pictures in an attempt to make you senile. First really good accident picture I saw in EMT school nearly 5 years ago now was of a man (still alive), who had been run over by a train and had his legs severed just above the knees. He was apparently drunk and passed out, woke up when he was being dismembered. Whatever. Ok, so it's just a picture. I've yet in my career after 5 years to have a pediatric code or pediatric trauma code, however have been so several adult cases of each. It will come, I will deal with it. It will probably be hard, but I'll quite likely find a way to get over it.

Now I'm sure everyone here could revel in their stories as those of us on the road for a bit of time certainly have a few, but that's not the point. Pictures are one thing. Being on scene with the sights, sounds and smells of accidents, blood and body parts is different and most everyone finds a way to be the rock we're expected to be. It's what we do. To sit there and get MAD because the school that's trying to teach you several skills you'll be using in the field when you go onto those juicy scenes shows you a few pictures? That's just silly. Do your textbooks not have pictures of anything similar? Have you done any on-car stuff like ridealongs or worked in the field at all? Because (and I'm going to be blunt here) if you get that uptight over a picture, what do you think the real world will be like when you get out there? Yeah it can be a shock seeing and doing this stuff for the first time especially if you've been somewhat sheltered to that sort of thing. Something will get to everyone at some point, we deal with it and usually move on.

If you end up finishing school and working on car, you'll probably know after your first really messy one if you're meant to work in EMS. Good luck to you.

[Just Plain Ruff]

What you have to remember is this. These were only pictures. I've seen some gross stuff in my career, from babies to 101 year olds. Trauma to medical.

You were exposed to a entire career's worth of stuff in an hours worth of time.

How often will you run on a abused to death baby? Not very darned often. I've seen only 3

How often will you run a decap - I've been in ems for nearly 20 years off and on and I've seen two.

How often will you run the gross stuff - not very often.

If you are on a 911 truck in a very busy urban system then you will of course get more calls than the ones who run rural but remember that there is more medical than trauma going on out there.

I work in a level 2 trauma center. Since I started working the 8a to 6pm shift in the IT office I've gone days without hearing Statcode 14 (trauma alert) and some times there are 10 per day. Consider that this trauma center/ER sees 400 patients per day, I'm betting that there will be many days between your trauma calls.

So just remember - how you deal with this is dependent upon how you yourself will deal with it. If you go off and hide your head in the sand and say "I can't look at this" then look into the future and decide if this is the career you want.

If you can say "hey, I can deal with this, hell yes it's gross but I'm here to try to help" then you begin your long journey into becoming a good emt/medic.

Just remember one more thing, these injuries are not your injuries. You have a job to do, you have a job to take care of the patient and if the patient is beyond help then your job migrates from taking care of the patient to NOW taking care of the family, bystanders or yourself.

I truly believe that the teachers of your class had no intention of doing this purposeful. These are some of the best lectures that you can get because you get to see what happens after the fact. What the ME office or coroner goes through to determine why they died. the lectures will give you a better understanding of why when this happens why does this happen and when ALL of this happens, why this kills them.

Michael

Once the call is over, go behind the ambulance, puke your guts out, cry some tears, hug your partner and go home, turn on a good movie, make popcorn and try to get some sleep.