PSA for this holiday season...

[Chief1C]

I'm offended by people who are selfish enough to drive intoxicated, then expect me to help put their lifeless corpse in a plastic bag and go home and sleep through the night.

Living in such a rural area, I've put a hell of a lot of folks I've known all my life, in body bags; and seen a lot of sickening sights. We all have, I'm sure. Scares me, to think what's coming at me on the next curve. Gives me something to say to people when they bitch and moan about getting a DUI.

"Hey, remember so and so. Even with $150K in top of the line rescue tools, we were using tin snip and pliers, took four hours to remove the body. Couldn't sleep for a week, I wish he'd gotten a DUI instead of a grave." I remember some calls, and some of them haunt me just b/c of how well I knew the victim. It's hard to see a face you've seen almost daily, for 10, 20, 25 years, "freshly lifeless". Hollywood can't even reproduce that stuff. It's not the same as seeing someone in a casket, it's shocking, and stains the mind. I think if more people seen what we in EMS or emergency medicine see, there might be a lot less tragic scenes.