Quote:
Originally posted by insoluble
<snip> It seems like it should be this huge profound thing, but it's not having a huge effect on me. Has anyone else seen someone they didn't know die?
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A few times... usually I didn't actually see them die, I saw them just after they died. Which is still somewhat upsetting.
First time really and truly sent me into a spin. I was, at the time, a volunteer fireman on a rescue squad, and we were stationed at the foot of the hill for the Duryea Hill Climb. I was there to see the race, which may have had a lot to do with my reaction...
Anyway, one of the racers hit a tree at the top of the hill, and when we got there a local Doctor had already pronounced him dead, so our job was simply to remove him from the car so the ambulance could take him away and the race could continue.
Well, I was so freaked out that I nearly started the Hurst tool with the hydraulic cables still connected to eachother instead of the tool. Fortunately my Captain saw what I was doing and stopped me. I was, for all intents, completely useless to him.
After that I was present at a couple of accidents where the victims were either dead when we got there, or died shortly after we arrived. I was always amazed that I could do that, remove a dead body from a twisted car... but somehow, I did.
Now the other one I will never forget was fishing a drowning victim out of a creek. I threw up... a lot! I can't imagine anything worse...
However, that was more an issue of gross than anything else.
So, long answer to a short question... I think if you are going to be involved in emergency medicine or rescue work you either already have the personality to deal with things like this, or you develop it rather quickly, or you find another line of work.
The good news is that, as someone else pointed out, we are no longer living under the impression that real men can hack it... there are people out there who can help you to prepare yourself for these things. You would be wise, I think, to take advantage of them.
I would think that it is probably even worse for non-emergency medical folks... but I don't know.
(FWIW, I left the volunteer fire biz when I discovered that I was noticing that everyone else was running out of the burning buildings when I was running in. You can't think that way and do a good job. So my time was up...)