The Community Calls

By Paul Wolf
Ass’t Chief of EMS, Allenton, Wis. Vol. FD

I’ve found EMS to be something that I can believe in.

My most memorable call was a PNB in a rural area of our protection area. I don’t recall who was on the call with me; but I know that, walking into the house, I sensed a family that knew that their patriarch was nearing the end. They had been out for a Friday night fish fry, and had returned home. How could such an enjoyable night end so badly?

I don’t recall the details; but, I made the call after arriving on scene, for a support vehicle to respond. I remember the two EMTs arriving and helping to carry the patient out of the house. CPR was in progress, but the AED was giving the “no shock advised” warning.

With no ALS available back then, all that was left was to load the patient, and continue to PUHA to the hospital. Knowing that the patient was getting everything we had from my partners, I stayed back to pick up anything that was left behind. I’ll never forget how the family was already thanking me for the work of the crew.

I was self-conscious about the backs of the defib pads that were laying on the floor; yet the family couldn’t believe how fast we arrived and our teamwork. How could I accept such praise, knowing that their husband and father wasn’t long for the world?

When the crew arrived back at the fire station, I was dumbfounded to learn that the patient had regained a pulse at the hospital. Our CPR had kept his heart viable long enough for the hospital’s protocols to re-start the heart!! I still knew that the patient had probably sustained permanent brain and/or heart damage due to the lack of oxygen from the time of the arrest to our arrival at his side.

My mind flew through the various possibilities that his survival would make possible. I even wondered if the family would grow to resent me somehow as the scapegoat if he survived, but with a poor quality of life.

By Sunday, I had heard that this patient had, indeed, passed away. While I was sad to hear that this man, that I had known all of my life, had left us, I was relieved to know that he wouldn’t suffer a prolonged condition. I was, again, dumbfounded, at the thanks given to me at the funeral.

The family told me how our efforts had allowed the entire family to say a final goodbye. I (we) had been called to help, and the man died!! All this paled in comparison to an event several months later; when one of the man’s daughters, in a public forum, pointed to me as one of the team members that responded to her father’s fatal incident. She not only thanked us, but also espoused her audience to strive to serve their community like the volunteers of the fire department. I was speechless.

In the following days, I began to understand what my EMT instructor had spoke of when he spoke of service, of empathy, of the privilege of attending an individual’s birth, or, death. This realization has framed many of my views on AFD, my family, and life in general. It was a profound and pivotal experience.