A woman is hanging out the back of a smashed hatchback. She's unconscious
and bleeding profusely.
It was the worst car accident Tess Goodman had ever seen. "I believed at
the time that she would die or at least be a vegetable," she says. Nevertheless,
Goodman hauled the woman from the car, hooked up an IV and splinted her fractures.
The woman was whisked into the trauma center doors, and out of Goodman's life.
Three months later, a man rushed up to Goodman and her partner when they
stopped at a corner store. "There's someone in the car that would like to
say thank you to you," the man said to Goodman. She walked over and saw the
woman she had helped out of the hatchback. "She hugged me so hard I thought
I was going to pass out," says Goodman.
Work is often dangerous for paramedics. "Violence in general is much greater
today than when I started," says Goodman. "Gangs are more prominent and guns
are the means by which more and more people are solving disputes." She has
been wearing a bulletproof vest for years.
"Ambulance drivers must also work in the middle of busy rush-hour streets
and climb into smashed vehicles capable of exploding."
But there are less spectacular risks to the career of a paramedic. "It
only takes one call to make you a dispatcher," says paramedic Bob Rauscher.
"You're working shift work, lifting stretchers over snow banks, and if you
hurt your back or neck you could find yourself behind a desk pretty quickly."
Being a paramedic takes a toll, both physically and mentally. When you're
not lifting stretchers all day, you're worrying about a child who was pulled
from the bent and twisted wreckage of a car on your last shift. "It's physically
demanding, so basically it's a young person's profession. There's a lot of
physical wear and tear. We haven't seen too many people make it through the
system to retirement," says Rauscher.
The job can also be draining emotionally. If you can't leave your work
behind at the end of a shift, you end up taking it home, where it can affect
your personal life. "I've seen a lot of separations and divorces because of
the job. It can really take a toll on your family life," says Rauscher.
Chris Hegley, a paramedic in Florida, has a young family. He has to work
hard to leave his worries behind when he goes home after his shift. "I've
had many good and bad things happen on the job," says Hegley. "This isn't
your regular job and you have some bloody, traumatic calls."
Bob Rauscher says one of the toughest things to get used to as a paramedic
is having to shift rapidly from complete inactivity to crisis mode. "All of
a sudden you have to perform at peak level. One minute you're talking to your
partner about your kids and the next minute you're giving oxygen to someone,"
he says.
Hegley, who works 24-hour shifts, agrees that the transitions can be tough.
"I have to be ready at all times to run emergency calls."
Aside from dealing with emergencies, Rauscher says there is the odd unpleasant
call, usually one that requires dealing with drunks or drug addicts. "In the
summertime especially, we deal with people who go out to the beach and party.
We bring drunks in and they're released the next morning. Some of them are
aggressive and sometimes they throw up on you."
Paramedics also have to deal with people who abuse the system. "People
know that if they make any type of medical complaint that we're required to
take them to the hospital," says Goodman.
One person on Goodman's route used to call the ambulance two to three times
a week. "If he wanted to be on the east side of town, he would request to
go to the hospital on the east side. If he wanted to be on the west side of
town he'd request that hospital," says Goodman. "Every time he would complain
of chest pain and that was his ticket for transportation."
Even if unpleasant, at least these prank calls aren't disturbing and traumatic.
"The worst calls are the ones when we deal with children who are hurt by adults
or who have died," says Hegley.
Sometimes it's difficult for a paramedic to erase the images of trauma.
"One of the worst things that I've ever had to do was pronounce a friend of
mine dead," he says.
Parts of the job can be boring and routine, such as transferring patients
from one hospital to another, filling out reports and responding to a lot
of non-emergency calls. "It can be repetitive," says Rauscher. "Not very many
calls are true emergencies. It's a lot of mundane stuff."
Still, Rauscher admits that it's a desire to help people that got him started
as a paramedic. "I really wanted to work with people and make a difference.
When someone's really in trouble, you're the first person there, and what
you do can make a big difference in that person's life."