That EMT Guy

I keep seeing articles online about how to treat someone for this and that blah blah blah. Most of the info I see can’t hurt to know, but today I saw an article on what to do after a car crash. Now as an EMT I can’t stress how annoying it is to come to the scene of a crash seeing victims up an walking around. If you are involved in a crash, and there is no immediate threat (like a gas leak, fire, or you are in the middle of traffic) please just stay in your car, keep you head looking straight, and call 911. Do not try to help others, if you even move someone a fraction of an inch and they have the correct spinal injury, not only can it paralyze them, it could kill them. So please, call 911, and wait in your car.

Even when I am not on duty, I still bring a few essential items with me. I keep them all in my wallet in a section where I have my certification cards and my emergency contact info (I am allergic to bees). In that section I also have 4-5 Johnson & Johnson Band-Aids, 2 sterile wipes, a one time use face shield for CPR, and a small gauze pad. The band-aids always come in handy, for example I was on a plane a little girl cut her finger on this sharp corner a tray table, I offered her a band-aid and ironically her Dad was a doctor, so I had a person to talk to on the flight haha.

What do you guys carry with you? And if you don’t carry anything, it doesn’t hurt to throw a couple things in your wallet or purse.

So I just made my first blog, haha. Well I don’t know if anyone cares or is even reading this, but I am going to tell a story from my past. 

When I was fifteen I got my first job at a local aquatic center. I was trained in house through Ellis & Associates, well known for water park safety training. They would have “audits” come every few months undercover and monitor the lifeguards. If they felt you were doing a bad job they could take you off the stand right there. Of course us being the smart kids we were, we had a special series of whistle blows to signal that we saw an “audit” and to be on our best behavior. Only one girl got fired because of these “audits” and she deserved to be fired. They dropped a dummy in her zone and it took her five minutes to notice! FIVE MINUTES! That is enough time for the person to die or at least go brain dead.

I will always remember making my first real save. I say real because I had to jump in to break up little fights, or pull a kid out from under his tube (we had water slides that used tubes) many times before. It was a 12 year old boy, he went down the drop slide (headfirst, against pool rules) and hit his head on the edge of the slide on the way down. I noticed blood in my zone which caused me to get up in my stand, then I looked over and saw him laying face down in the water. I blew my whistle and jumped in. Another guard jumped in with me, while two others went to get the aqua board (a backboard that is used for pools). Once we got him on the board I noticed the blood was coming for a small cut above his eye, but it looked like so much because of the water. When we got him out of the water he was not breathing but did have a pulse. I started rescue breathing while my fellow guard ran to the gate to lead the paramedics to me (our fire station was only 3 min away from the pool). After only about 1 min of rescue breathing the boy started coughing up water. We titled the board so he was on his side. Once he was awake and breathing we started dressing the cut. That is when the medics arrived and took over.

Well that was my story about the first time I saved a life. I would love to hear some of yours! Submit a story or ask a question!