Sadddest Call Ever ?????????

[Eydawn]

CISD is something hotly debated here in the forum. Search for it and see the mess before jumping back into it?

Many argue that CISD/CISM causes more damage than it helps, and that it has no concrete psychological basis. Many advocate seeing an individual therapist or counselor instead of participating in CISM. In any case, any CISM *must* be orchestrated by a psychologist in order to have any merit; if it is just your fire chief or your operations head running it, it's not a good thing... and it should never be mandatory to participate in.

Wendy

CO EMT-B

[Christopher.Collins]

My saddest call ever? Well it was an hour before my 12hr overnight shift (1900-0700) was set to end. My partner and I were called to pick up a patient at a near by hospital and transport them to one in New Bedford, Massachusettes. Needless to say that tacked on about 4-5 extra hours on our shift.

In seriousness though... I dont know what my saddest call was because I havnt really ever been affected by the things Ive seen and done. Id say maybe if anything itd be an MVA I worked with a teenage couple. They wernt in critical condition but they were banged up pretty bad none the less. I wound up transporting both in my rig ALS to Yale and just listening to them cry and tell eachother how much they love one another... etc. It wasnt so much what happend to them, more so the emotions between both.

[Don1977]

Never used or offered CISD, don't really know if i would want it...

[WolfmanHarris]

One of my saddest was not particularly critical but for a couple of reasons/similarities left me with a "there but for the grace of God go I."

[bball160]

I would have to decline on this... It seems kind of disrespectful

[Canadian Caesar]

I would have to decline on this... It seems kind of disrespectful

Gee. If you really look hard enough, you might be able to find a few more dead threads that you don't agree with that you can resurrect.

Edited March 14, 2009 by Julian Power

[2wheelinemt]

sporty- I'm with you. I don't know what i would have done but let me tell you this you did what I feel you were led to do. There was an exchange that no matter what call you would have taken that day wouldn't have touched you or her nearly as much. To me it was appropriate and i believe you were put there that day just for that lady. you moved me with your story. Keep up the good work!

[ErinCooley]

My saddest call and "first" call was the Friday of Labor day weekend, 2007. I was still in EMT school, but had just enough knowledge to be able to do an assessment and CPR.

My little girl was hit and killed by my husband who was working in our yard on his bulldozer.

No matter what I ever do, it will never get worse.

[WelshMedic]

Erin,

As a parent I can't even begin to imagine how that was for you. It's almost cruel to state it like this, but I think you "win" hands down on this topic.

That's why I feel that it's run it's course and maybe it's time to put a lock on it. It's not about the sensation of someone's "saddest call" but how we deal with it.

You are in my thoughts.

WM

[krumel]

Saddest call ever was on 12/25 a few years ago. One colleague of the other station in the county had an kid with some rare chronical disease(don't know the name, occurs 2 or 3 time worldwide per year). It was clear this sweet little boy had to die sometimes but the week before christmas his health got worse. We tried everything to get his dad off the schedule but simply couldn't make it. Too many members were ill, two were somewhere in the alps and couldnt be reached...

On that day we got called to the house of my colleague with the code "pediatric respiratory arrest". They dispatch an heli with us, staffed with the pediatric CCU team. Only a minute later we heared that the other station had to respond to an "minor respiratory problem". When we arrived the mother (an former ICU nurse from the local hospital and EMT-I herself) was already doing CPR.

We tried it for about an hour until the ped. called it.

Then the unbelievable happend: On of the first responders -we thought they were aware of the situation because this colleague is also the chief instructors of all first responders within the hole country- called dispatch "declared death, name XYZ, back to station" (this is here the normal procedure) right after the other unit called dispatch they were enroute back to station.

So my colleaguue got informed about the death of his son by radio....

The hole county was hit by a million bricks of sadness the next days.... No matter of FD, PD, everyone.