Code 3

Well I attended my first medical call last night. Thanksgiving evening. Out of respect for the family and the fact that there are privacy issues I won’t share many details but let’s just say this was a tough first call.

The Fire Department was called following a medical call as an older male was not feeling and well slipping in and out of consciousness. When we arrived the paramedics and two police officers were performing CPR. EPFD jumped in to assist with the CPR which allowed the paramedics to focus on providing intravenous fluids, med’s and other vitals monitoring. CPR on a person, a father….. is very different than on a practice dummy. I mentally had to switch off emotions or looking at the patient as someone’s parent and deal with the situation as just that a……a situation.

We worked on the patient for close to sixty minutes before the paramedics finally called it.

Afterwards I wasn’t sure how I would feel or act. If I would dwell on the fact that someone just passed or that we did everything we could to save a life. So far I am okay with it. I was a little tough to go back to sleep at 2 in the morning but that is nothing new. I know it could have been a lot tougher but we have some great people in the department.

Hopefully next time we’ll have a different outcome.