Impressions

My first code ever was when I was in EMT class. I was riding on M3 with 2 medics who taught me a great deal and were fast becoming my friends. We walk into this house where a woman was lying on the floor covered in glass. She had taken out 5 large glass shelves when she went down. Her family was all around her. I don’t remember many sights about them but I remember the sounds of the people. The muttered prayers, the tears, the cries of agony. I remember someone herding all the family into another room so that we could work. Still I could hear them. Then I remember the chaos. Passing the BVM off to someone, chest compressions, kneeling in glass, sweating from the stress and the heat of the summer. I remember the EMS supervisor getting there cool as a cucumber, talking on his headset to the ER doc and dropping a tube at the same time. The impression of him being put together and confident and able to handle the world was what I was left with. At that moment I knew I wanted to feel that confident. I will never forget that first impression of EMS and of a medic. It makes me work harder and expect more of myself everyday. I thank him for that.