I had an incredibly hard call at work today. The type of call that reminds me how brutal we can be as a species. If you know me, you know I am an optimistic person. Always have been. I live to see the best in people. It is calls like today’s that shake my faith in that belief.
219 is our code for stabbing victim. A woman called telling me her boyfriend had a psychotic break and stabbed her. What I didn’t know is that he had stabbed her 5 times in the chest and side. I normally don’t take calls very hard as I have a pretty thick skin. Being in the biz, you develop a knack for shrugging it off as a defense mechanism.
That said, there is a time between sending the help and when the help arrives that you are left in a sort of limbo zone. This zone can be a few seconds or up to a minute depending on what else is going on. It is in these moments when the helplessness overwhelms you…knowing help is on the way and powerless to do anything until they arrive. Moments when the caller on the line lays all their hopes on you to save their life.
Today was such a call. This woman was crying out to me to not let her die. I stayed calm and did my best to keep her calm and reassure her help was on the way. She was brave under the circumstances, remained relatively calm, and stayed w/me the whole time. The entire call lasted 10 minutes but that 10 minutes was like 10 hours. Then to hear the police struggle w/her deranged boyfriend in the background only aggrevated a very intense situation.
No matter how hardened I get from taking these types of calls, I find I can’t shut all the emotions out. I’ll probably nevery hear from her again. But, I don’t need to. I can sleep good tonight knowing I did the best I could w/o fail. If she dies, my conscience remains clear.
Hey bro –
I really admire people like you who do these incredible jobs with so much poise.
I work in healthcare, administration mind you, but I’ve seen a few difficult situations. I think that I can respond rationally, and know what to do. I’m surprised at how in the moment, if we aren’t trained, how little we actually do.
I’m sure that part of your response is your training.
I’m sure that a bigger part of your response is your heart.
Projecting? maybe. I’m just grateful that people have the desire to do this work.
Thanks!
Piggy
I hadnt known that you had taken that call. You, my friend, are a serious trooper. I can only hope that I dont take a call like that myself. I hate them. But I like to think that if i did, I’d pull thru just as well.