Paramedic Short Stories

On January 3, 2009 around 11:00 PM the phone rang with what I thought was exciting news about my newly born sister, Tristyn ,but quickly turned to horror. I could heard the fright in my dad's shaken voice as he told me Tristyn had to go into immediate heart surgery because she needed a stent to open up the blood flow to her heart. Being eight at the time the only thing I could think about was how she might not make it. My dad said to me “look after your sisters, and tell them nothing about the surgery”, which terrified me more than before. I knew I needed to be brave and take charge of the situations for my sisters. Bravery is something I learned for a situation I never knew would happen.

It’s the day I have to move to the army's campsite. I grab my bag and swing them on my shoulder, it weighs a ton it feels like my shoulder’s gonna break. Sophie was peeking through my room door, as I was about to stand up she ran to the living room curled up into a ball making loud thud and sobbing noises. Outside of the house, I hug my mom as tight as I could, I don’t want to move any single inch of my bone. I want to stay like this forever. I felt a drop of water behind my shoulder and I know that it was her tears. I don’t want to leave them but I have to. It was time to let go but she didn’t want to, I grab her arm and slightly push them back.

As I looked up, the sky was dark the sidewalk illuminated by the streetlights. The sound of crickets and cars echoing through my ears. I walked home that night, tears in my eyes. I was leaving, I couldn’t handle it anymore. The meds, doctors, psychiatrists nothing was working, our lives were in constant danger. By the time I got home the car was gone. By the time, I finished packing it was dawn. The sun creeping in through the shutters. For the next couple of days, I crashed at Jason’s before I headed South. I heard my cell ringing, it was mom… I let it go to voicemail.

‘I don’t want to lose her,’ I kept repeating in my head trying to look strong for her. I was trying to not show how scared I was, trying to stop bursting into tears the second I saw her in the state she was. She was so weak and there was nothing I could do to help, except stay out of the doctor’s way. There were nurses and doctors rushing around and giving me a strange look until realization dawned on them. I was at the hospital with my mom around 10 at night, in my pajamas, wondering what was going to happen to her and if she was going to be okay.

And then, the day I had feared of most, finally arrived. We lost our father, the only figure I truly felt safe with. After months of mourning and painful transformations, our mother fell sick. In those terrible days, days during which I was locked in the basement most of the time, for my safety and even more: for the safety of my family, I was incapable of helping. To this, I regret even today.

“I don’t feel so well” Jan’s father had suddenly said one morning at breakfast. Her father, a World War II veteran, stood up and went to go lie down. The rest of the family continued with their day. Michael went to see how his father was. When he tried to wake him his father didn’t respond or make a sound. The 11 year old boy was the one who first knew that his father was gone. The memory of her father’s loss is vivid in Jan’s mind. It was a substantial shock after he had survived the horrors of World War II and then just passed away quietly at home one morning. Jan now understands how

I vividly remember that chilly night in March as I walked out of Fifer, the building my father now calls home, for the first time. I had goosebumps, but they were not from the cold I felt hit my skin. Instead, they were from the sickness in my stomach. As I got in the car, I began to cry and had to stop myself from running back inside. My entire world had turned upside-down. How could I go home without my father? How could I leave him in a nursing home, a place where he was too young and mentally fit to be confined? I had to fight the feeling that he didn’t belong. I had to remind myself of why he chose to be there, and I hated it.

“Right this way,” the nurse ahead of me was prompting me to a brightly lit hall that was completely foreign to me. I couldn’t help but be terrified by the sights and sounds around me: people chattering, machines methodically beeping, gurneys rushing past. It was my first time in a hospital and my eyes frantically searched each room looking for any trace of my father. She stopped suddenly and I turned to the bed in front of me but I could not comprehend what I saw. At such a young age, I idolized my father; I had never seen him so vulnerable. Seeing him laying in a hospital bed unconscious, surrounded by wires and tubes was like witnessing Superman encounter kryptonite. My dad’s car accident not only made him a quadriplegic, but also crippled

A paramedic will need at least a high school diploma and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) certification. CPR certification can be completed within one to two years. In addition, paramedics may also need an associates degree. In order to get a certification, candidates must go through rigorous training and classroom time. Paramedics must not only have education and training, they must also have the mental desire for helping and working with others.

You never know when something might happen. An ordinary day can turn into a tragedy. November 8, 2016, was that kind of day. My dad was deer hunting so that afternoon it was just me and my mom.I was getting ready for gymnastics practice when my mom got a call. The caller ID read “Community Memorial”. I could hear the fear in my mom's voice as she picked up the phone. “H-hello?” she said. I waited nervously as my mom spoke to the hospital. Five minutes later she hung up the phone. “Your dad fell 13 feet out of his tree stand while he was hunting. He called 9-1-1 and is at Community Memorial right now” my mom said. At that point I didn’t know how serious the injuries were. “Is he ok?” I asked.

Ssshh, BAM!” The front engine spewed out smoke, as the plane flew across the sky. “Can anyone hear me?”,The pilot screamed at the radio. Dead silence. A girl, Lisa, a thin, brown eye, black hair, fifteen year old girl who was in tenth grade who is hoping to be a paramedic. She still has a decide where to get that degree to be a paramedic. Lisa was reading a book on the right hand side of the pilot was screaming in fear knowing she wouldn’t survive. Then moments later, the pilot was down. Lisa quickly snatched the wheel and flew the plane. She grabbed the radio and said, “Is anyone there? Anyone? HELP ME!” Moments later she get a response.

“Rabia wake up now; we have to go. She’s gone,” my mother said without another word. Within moments, I was standing in my best friend’s apartment at seven in the morning on Memorial Day. I stood there in the living room, unable to stop the tears from flowing as I watched the most terrifying moment of my life take place in front of my eyes. My muscles were tense; I clenched my jaw as my teeth began grinding uncontrollably. I tried so hard to mute the cries of others. Confusion had taken over my body so much so that I entered a state of numbness and could no longer feel any emotion. I have never had to use so much willpower to digest what was happening around me.

When I was four paramedics saved my life. When I was six my mommy was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. Hospitals were not out of the norm to our family. By that time, I understood how vitally important medical practice is to our lives.

This early October afternoon, it was a little different. I pulled into my driveway and saw my mom’s Acura. Confused, I went upstairs to see what she was doing home. She normally didn’t get home until 7pm. I walked in to an “Ohh ahh,” sound. My dad was helping her into bed, while fixing a bandage around her chest. I stood there with a puzzled look on my face.

I reflected on the horrible, life-changing situation as I looked out the airplane window into the dark sky. It’s like my eyes were bleeding fear that my heart was feeling, what would I do without my father and brother around? We finally landed in Kotzebue where our family came to greet us with warm hugs. They had so much food and desserts made for when we got to my Aunty’s house. Every one we knew stopped by the house to check on us and tell us it was going to be okay. At this time, Search and Rescue were already looking for my father and brother outside the town. They searched and searched for them and could not find them.