Greetings everyone,
How well do you know the job of paramedic? Are you aware of their daily struggles, or what their patients have lived through? We'll be exploring these with this series of
(fictional) testimonies!
[h2]Story #1: Chef who suffered an angio-oedema[/h2]
The unexpected is a big part of my job. That sometimes means a last-minute replacement, or a visit by an inspector. There can also be hella problems with deliveries, or even the products themselves. To deal with the unknown, we come up with a whole buncha of more or less effective procedures. On paper it looks all very mathematically set out, but in the end, we help each other out, yell at each other and things move in the right direction.
Considering how long I’ve been in the job, I thought I knew all the solutions to the equation! But when your own body becomes the unknown, and it’s up to others to solve the problem, it’s a completely different story. When it happened, I didn’t notice right away. At first I got angry with my team, who just stared at me instead of working. I was telling myself, “We’re in the middle of a rush, and they’re letting themselves get distracted by my apron not being straight. !” When I saw the commis chef pick up the phone on the job, I was about to let rip at him, and it was then that I realised I was the reason for the concern.
There was practically no sound coming out of my mouth, and I started struggling to breathe. When I saw my disfigured reflection in the stainless-steel door of one of our refrigerators, I thought I was going to faint. And that was almost certainly what happened, because a moment later, my saviour was there. An angio-oedema, they told me at the hospital. It was my very first allergic episode, and it could have been the last if the paramedic hadn’t intervened in time and responded correctly. Since then, I see him from time to time at one of my tables. We never talk about what happened, but I’ll always be grateful to him.
[h2]Story #2: Paramedic who responded to an explosion at a petrol station [/h2]
Don’t talk to me about karma or destiny. All I see is a child, as cruel as he is innocent. He’s playing with one of those little maze toys, where the aim is to tilt it to move the ball towards the exit. Except that in our scenario, the child is happy to shake the object, just to see what happens. I’m the ball, and I must handle the consequences of all this senseless violence.
We already knew that we were going to get the call when we heard the explosion. On the radio they always have more information than you, but they settle for giving you the bare bones, for the sake of efficiency and to avoid unsettling you. So when they start to sugar-coat it, you can guess right away that you’ll never be ready to face what is happening on the other side of the tower blocks, where the billowing smoke is darkening the sky. You turn on the sirens and strobes, check that your colleague has, like you, prepared for what i’s going on, and off you go.
When you’re there, you need to shut off all your instincts. Otherwise, you’ll be out of there like a shot. Then, you need to crank down your emotions, and stay pragmatic to stop your legs from giving way. At the time, I didn’t even try to understand what might have caused this disaster. Everyone needs help, so you work as quickly and efficiently as you can, without asking too many questions. We knew that we couldn’t save everyone, but when a motorway structure collapses onto a petrol station, giving it your all is the least that you can do.
[h2]Story #3: Elderly lady who witnessed a road accident [/h2]
Everyone says that as the years go by, time seems to pass quicker and quicker. I also think our relationship with time has changed over the past few years. Everyone’s always rushing around! At my age, running is a luxury, so you just let time go by, as if you were an onlooker. What life has taught me is that time spent with love is the most precious thing there is.
Once it’s gone, it’s lost forever.
When I see all these youngins racing against time, jostling to get onto the metro and honking their horns at each other on their drive into work, I can see myself a few years ago, keeping an anxious eye on the clock. Nowadays, I hardly take any notice of the time. But when I do take a look, I realise how far the hands have moved. I don’t really know what caused this accident, but time definitely played an important part in all that. This person was driving so fast; they might have shortened their trip, but only to end up hurtling into a catastrophe. Looking on, I saw the car knock down this lady at the pedestrian crossing. At that point I did start running, – something I hadn’t done for ages.
These days, everyone has their eyes glued to their phones, though ’ll admit this time it was thanks to one of those devices that an ambulance responded so quickly. For my part, glancing at my watch as I kept the victim company, was all that I could do. I was really struck by the image of the paramedics, who knew exactly what to do, so much so that I signed up for first aid training. If I’d known the right actions to take, I wouldn’t have been caught in the thrall of time that day. When I go to the classes, time passes even quicker, but that’s because I have so much fun!
[h2]Story #4: Policeman injured during a robbery [/h2]
In my job we’re all prepared for the possibility of using our service weapon. We’re trained physically, but also psychologically. We practice firing at paper targets, mounted on a metal plate, and it almost becomes a game. We try to improve our accuracy, speed and therefore our score. I think that I’m one of the best on my team, since besides the score I get, the team always turns either to me or the instructor for advice or to assess their performance.
In psychological terms, we’re trained to keep a cool head, know when to fire and when not to, and to know the legal limits, but also our own limits. It was the latter aspect that I didn’t know. Since despite my performances in training, I’d never shot at anyone, or been shot at myself. The impact was so strong and intense that I lost consciousness.
When I opened my eyes, there was somebody applying cardiac massage – my heart had stopped beating. The impact was so violent that it cracked my sternum, and I stopped breathing. It was no longer a game, and looking back, I’d have preferred the paper target in my place, even though thanks to my vest and the paramedics, nobody died that day.
[h2]Story #5: Fireman who took part in fighting a major blaze [/h2]
Entering a building on fire entails many risks. Smoke intoxication, collapse, burns and so on. So when you tackle fires and evacuate the victims from the hellish conditions, you take enormous risks. The loss of friends and colleagues, as well as victims, is unfortunately an everyday occurrence.
But despite all these risks, I realise that from the victims’ viewpoint, we only do half the job.
When I took this person out of the fire, she still wasn’t safe. Burned, unconscious and definitely suffering from smoke intoxication, she was probably also in shock. There was lots still to do when I handed her over to the paramedics. We could lose her any second. I learned a while later that she was DOA at the hospital.
That’s why I would say that in reality, we only do part of the job. The paramedics had to put everything into stabilising her in the ambulance, and getting her to hospital as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, it isn’t always enough. We give it our heart and soul, since even if even things don’t turn out the way we want, we give the victims a chance, and that’s definitely the main thing.
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