TO STAY AN EMT, OR, HANG UP THE STETHOSCOPE…?

Decision time was upon me this week.

Should I complete on-line EMT (Emergency Medical Technician) Refresher requirements and renew my Wisconsin EMT-Basic License, even though I have been on temporary leave from my service for the past 1 1/2 years while down here on the Mississippi Gulf Coast doing hurricane Katrina relief?

Or should I say that 18 years as a volunteer in the EMS Service is enough, and not renew?

During the past 18 years as an Emergency Medical Services volunteer responder, I have probably averaged around 30-35 calls per year, ranging from a high of around 60 calls in the busiest year, and a low of 1 call last year, which happened when I went on a call when I was home on a weekend in Wisconsin to visit my family.

EMTs nation-wide, whether they be EMT-Basics, EMT-IV (IV certified), or EMT-Paramedic, volunteer or paid, provide a critical service to their communities, as Emergency Medical Responders.

They go “on call” for their shift, wearing a pager on their belt which will activate when an emergency occurs, to summon them out to a scene of medical need, a scene which can be fraught with dangers of all sorts, dangerous to responding emergency services personnel, patients, families and bystanders alike, life-threatening dangers.

Over the years, I can’t begin to tell you of all the times when myself and fellow EMT crew mates have responded to ambulance calls during the middle of the night, over roads covered with snow, white ice, black ice, freezing rain and thick fog, and then the roads which were in good condition.

During those calls we would be dealing with patients who (unbeknown to us) had Aids, HIV and/or hepetitis, patients who were drunk, belligerent and combative, and patients who had large, protective dogs in the home, among other numerous hazards.

We EMTs all have our “war stories” we can tell about the calls we have experienced over the years, the majority of which were ‘routine,’ and then there are those that you somehow got through without losing your sanity and composure, and will never, ever forget. The ones involving babies who have stopped breathing or were choking, the auto crash fatalities, burn victims, drownings, heart attacks, strokes, seizures, overdoses, suicides, sports injuries and others.

We never knew what was coming at us when we arrived at the scene where we were needed.

And on that topic, I will share just one story with you, one EMS experience that happened to me when I wasn’t even ‘on call,’ one that I will never forget.

On early Easter Sunday morning, in 1996, my oldest son and I had arrived back in our rural Dane County, Wisconsin home after having driven all night from northern Mississippi in a 24′ rental truck, after delivering a huge load of donated clothing and other items to needy Mississippi delta families during the previous 3 days.

After getting about 6 hours of badly needed sleep, my wife and I, with our two youngest children, left our home and headed out towards the town where my wife’s mother lived some two hours north, to spend Easter Sunday with her.

When we were about 45 minutes north on our journey, and were starting to pass through a small village, approaching a kwik stop/cheese outlet (it was Wisconsin), when we spotted what appeared to be a serious automobile accident directly ahead of us about 100 yards.

I directed my daughter, who was driving, to pull off to the right into the gas station and park, about even with where a wrecked gray station wagon was sitting in the southbound lane of traffic on the highway. The rear end of the station wagon was totally smashed and gone, just a mass of tangled steel, plastic and glass, from an obvious high-speed, rear end collision. About 20 feet behind the station wagon sat a small, wrecked compact-type truck, the front end of which was totally obliterated.

Apparently, we had come upon this accident literally only moments after it had occurred, as there were no police, fire or EMS responders at the scene yet, just a few people standing over by the gas station.

My EMS training and experience kicked in automatically, as I quickly went to the rear of my vehicle, donned some vinyl gloves and grabbed my EMT ‘jump kit’ and started walking towards the gray station wagon. At that same moment, two local EMTs who had driven up and parked by my car as I was getting my stuff from the trunk, joined me on my trip over towards the two wrecked vehicles.

I quickly introduced myself and advised that I was an EMT and asked what they wanted me to do to help. One said for the other EMT to go check on the two teenage girls in the small truck and what their injuries might be, and for myself and the other EMT to check out the people in the station wagon, and for me to try to get the door of the passenger side open, to check on injuries there.

I ran around what was left of the rear end of the station wagon, up to the passenger door, set my jump kit down, and put my right hand on the passenger door handle, in preparation to trying to open it.

As I squeezed the door handle to open it, the male passenger, obviously in a great deal of pain, turned his head towards me and our eyes locked onto each other.

Instantly, my heart, my breath, and my body, froze!

I was looking directly into the eyes of…my father!

It seemed like that terrible moment took forever, even though it passed literally in a split second. I pulled open the door, and my dad said in a weak, pain-filled voice: “Oh, Son, I’m so glad to see you.”

When he spoke, that frozen moment passed, and the EMT in me quickly resurfaced and took control again, and I asked him where he hurt. The other EMT was able to get the driver’s side door open and start immediately assessing my frantic stepmother.

When we were driving up to the accident scene, and my thoughts were on the next several steps I would be taking, I had not recognized my father’s station wagon. And, it turns out, they were actually on their way down to see me and my family, at my home, but hadn’t called to let us know.

In a few minutes, the local ambulance arrived, and I assisted them in extricating my father from the vehicle into the ambulance. He suffered three broken ribs and other contusions when they were struck from behind by two teenage girls going about 60 miles an hour, in the small truck. It seems the girls were trying to tune in their radio and were not paying attention to their driving. My father’s southbound car was stopped, signaling to turn into the cheese store so they could get some cheese to bring down to us.

The crash impact was so great that it broke my father’s seatbelt, thus breaking his ribs and doing other things. The real worry, though, we all had, was for my father’s heart, as he had an implanted pacemaker/defibrillator in him.

I road with him in the ambulance into one of the hospitals in Madison, to the ER there for treatment and further assessment. The remaining three years of his life, he never fully recovered from his injuries, and experienced considerable pain the rest of his days.

One of an EMTs worst nightmares is getting to a scene and finding that one of the victims is either family or someone he or she knows.

I had my nightmare, and I hope to God there never is another one like that.

As many of you are aware, my decision was “Yes’ to renew my EMT license for another two years, and I completed the necessary requirements Tuesday on-line to make that a reality.