Nuts how you posted this a hair before mine. Kind of answered my question lol
Anyway, did you ever witness a suicide attempt save in person?
General Watched (heard) a guy splat from 20 stories on Thursday in Chicago...
- Thread starter frankenchrist
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Anyway, did you ever witness a suicide attempt save in person?
I responded to a call, 12 year old girl was suicidal, she called 911. I scream to the house, looking through the windows, it was late at night, don't see anything besides a tv on. I go to the back patio door. I quietly knock while I stay out of the funnel. An old woman who was laying on the couch pops up and opens the door.
Can I help you? Yes ma'am, we received a 911 for a suicidal teen here. Oh Jesus, not again.
She takes me down the hallway and starts banging on the door for her grand daughter to come out, she's sick of this shit and a Trooper is here. I told her to go away and told the girl to open the door or I am kicking it in.
I finally heard the door unlatch and have my gun drawn as I walk in the room, never know how they are gonna try and do it.
There is no one in the room. Then I hear sobbing coming from the closet. I open the door and this little girl is sitting in the back corner crying. She had no weapons so I holstered my gun and sat with her in the closet talking while waiting for EMS who were on their way. She unloaded her trash bag on me, mentally not physically. Not going to go over the whole conversation but EMS showed up and she thanked me and off she went to the hospital.
I had a very stern conversation with the grandmother about what her response was when she came to the door and what she told me and made a referral to DHS over it.
I hope the kiddo made it and just me sitting with her made a difference. Can't dwell on it, it will eat you up.
Yeah, I've "saved" a few. Never saw any movie heroics if thats what you're asking.
Usually they are very angry, embarrassed, and combative.
Because I fucked up their solution and added more problems they can't deal with.
My very first field save was an intentional overdose.
The guy that jumped off the bridge in the middle of winter still fucks with me a little. His wife was driving and he started flipping out, kicking the windshield, yelling at her to pull over. She did, he got out and jumped over the guardrail, 80 feet down onto a frozen river. I had to take the pictures for the death investigation, seeing feet 90 degrees from where they are supposed to be and the head trauma was different. Still not as bad as the guy that lost a testicle though.
About a week after my brother's funeral I get a call while I'm trying to work. That week was rough enough when you're used to having a right hand man, family, best friend at work everyday but when it rains it pours. I knew something happened as soon as I saw who called. My cousin was schizophrenic and he finally had enough. He shot himself...in the chest... with his rifle. He was always a mess of a person but the fashion in which he did it and at his parents' house just hit me hard. I love my aunt and uncle. They are hard working mexiCANs and did not deserve to wake up to that. The rest of their kids are pretty normal. Sometimes you just get dealt a shit hand.
I would never have. The mental fortitude. To handle a situation like this i would be a mess afterwards. God bless you for how you handled it.
I think the fact that I was 47 when I did it and my background in customer service and my life experiences helped in dividends.
It was a question that came up in my oral board. Why should we hire you.
Short answer was well if you compare me to a 24 year old applicant that is responding to family fight of a 50 year old couple that has been married for 30 years I know exactly what they are dealing with. A 24 year old doesn't. It was much more in depth than that but that was the jist.
I went through my daughter's own anxiety period in high school, I could relate to what kid's were going through.
Responded to a hanging. Lady tied a rope to a Bannister.
My partner was just frozen.
Finally she muttered "all she had to do was stand up....."
I knew that was the one for her, that it was over.
She immediately got into PA school and is happily treating boo boos and ear infections now.
The job isn't for everyone, you will see shit nobody should see and you have to carry that forever.
One old medic told me "nobody gets out clean"
Front row ticket to the greatest show on earth, but you better be ready for that show and deal with it appropriately afterwards during decompression.
I thank my wife for allowing that decompression, she was well aware of issues in EMS and would sit and talk with me at the end of each shift so I could empty that compartmentalized box in my brain. Plus the fact she loves true crime, cops, live pd, etc made it it a bonus for her lol.
I have gotten more fucked up by people's reactions than the actual incident.
I tend to agree with the Sherrif of Baghdad about PTSD. Its what happens immediately after that matters, and I'm not talking about a CISD. I mean right there in the parking lot and at the base when were hosing brains out of our gear.
John would make sure everyone told that person they did exactly what they were supposed to do in that situation, the way you feel is normal, now let's go take this apart and see where I failed you, son.
My version was "That was a real one, how you doing with it? When we get this wrapped up we're gonna take it completely apart and look at it, but for right now tell me what you did right and why you did it..." that turns into what anyone that ever worked with me knows as the 3 questions- what did you do right, what did you do wrong, what would you do different next time?.
The last question would take us over to the dry erase board and we'd run the call again, and again, and again, until they had a road map that they themselves created and a belief that they absolutely can do that one again when it comes.
When I had my first dead baby I wasn't working for a very "healthy" dept.
A medic from a county over got my number and called me out of the blue. We weren't friends, just a face I knew.
He talked me through it, because he knew it was a possible go/no go for a young provider.
Best thing he said to me was "this wasn't your fault, you didn't create the situation. He was dead before they called 911, you never had a chance on this one. But it gave you something valuable, it will never be your first time again.. it will never be that scary again. You've already done that."
These are the things I've always done for my guys and it definitely pays off for them.
I tend to agree with the Sherrif of Baghdad about PTSD. Its what happens immediately after that matters, and I'm not talking about a CISD. I mean right there in the parking lot and at the base when were hosing brains out of our gear.
John would make sure everyone told that person they did exactly what they were supposed to do in that situation, the way you feel is normal, now let's go take this apart and see where I failed you, son.
My version was "That was a real one, how you doing with it? When we get this wrapped up we're gonna take it completely apart and look at it, but for right now tell me what you did right and why you did it..." that turns into what anyone that ever worked with me knows as the 3 questions- what did you do right, what did you do wrong, what would you do different next time?.
The last question would take us over to the dry erase board and we'd run the call again, and again, and again, until they had a road map that they themselves created and a belief that they absolutely can do that one again when it comes.
When I had my first dead baby I wasn't working for a very "healthy" dept.
A medic from a county over got my number and called me out of the blue. We weren't friends, just a face I knew.
He talked me through it, because he knew it was a possible go/no go for a young provider.
Best thing he said to me was "this wasn't your fault, you didn't create the situation. He was dead before they called 911, you never had a chance on this one. But it gave you something valuable, it will never be your first time again.. it will never be that scary again. You've already done that."
These are the things I've always done for my guys and it definitely pays off for them.
Having a job that means something has to be pretty cool. Being the one to deal with the things others cannot.
I am sure my job will give me a heart attack one day. It's a meaningless job.
In some strange way I wonder what's worse. Dealing with the reality of a job like yours or toiling away at some shit hole, wondering why God put you on this planet.
I am sure my job will give me a heart attack one day. It's a meaningless job.
In some strange way I wonder what's worse. Dealing with the reality of a job like yours or toiling away at some shit hole, wondering why God put you on this planet.
I left EMS a couple times to do regular stuff. I didn't like it.
Most of my exes would say it didn't make me a fun person to be around sometimes and the schedule was too much for them. 75% divorce rate.
Most of my exes would say it didn't make me a fun person to be around sometimes and the schedule was too much for them. 75% divorce rate.
That is insanely high.
Literally the first thing they wrote on the dry erase board day 1 of paramedic school. Made a whole thing about it, lol. Half the people that were in a relationship at the start of school were single by the end. Two of us ended engagements.
Goes up to around 95% if both people are in emergency services.
We had a whole day talking about home life and relationships, our spouses were invited as well, they had a separate class in the morning, we had lunch together and then we had a group class in the afternoon.
Also my wife and I read this
Yeah I still get flashbacks of seeing folks lifeless after a shooting or car accident before the cops/coroner get to the corpses here. It actually made me approach life differently. When folks say today could be your last day that is actually wrong it is more like this second could be your last second as I have seen folks alive one second and dead the next immediately.