The other .01%

I guess I’m going to start this out with a disclaimer. The only connection to diabetes in the following post is that it is about me, a person with diabetes. I’m not sure if you would call this one a rant or just mourning out loud, I guess anyone that reads this can make that decision for themselves.

I’m a volunteer firefighter and I would have to say that I truly enjoy firefighting 99.99% of the time. Last night was the other .01% of the time.

The night was going like most any other Saturday night until my radio went off and we got a call for an accident. I responded like I have so many other times. I was on the third truck to arrive on the scene, the first two trucks and ambulances had already got there and where treating patients. The medics requested an air ambulance so I knew that someone had been injured pretty badly. The first thing that I did when I got to the scene was start setting up a landing zone for the air ambulance, once that was done I went to see if anyone needed help with anything else. I was in the process of helping a couple of the medics get a stretcher out of the back of one of the ambulances when I first noticed that I knew a few of the bystanders at this scene. I didn’t think too much about knowing some of the people standing around, I live in a small community and it’s not unusual to know some of the people that we respond to help. I looked over towards the other ambulance that was there and noticed the medics working on the other injured person in the back of their unit. My curiosity got the best of me and I asked one of the medics who the other injured person was. The medic told me the name of the person; it was my wife’s nephew. We got word a few hours later that he didn’t make it.

This is where that .01% that I mentioned earlier comes in. Being that I live in a fairly small rural community the odds are pretty good that when the fire pager goes off we are going to at least know of some of the people that we are going to help. Most of the time knowing of the people is not a problem, but when it is someone that you know and have watched grow up the call takes on a whole different feel. This next part is going to sound a little jaded but it is just how I feel and deal with a fatal accident like this one. When you just know “of” someone it is easier to distance yourself from the emotional side of what you are there to do, but when you know the person it becomes very difficult to get away from the emotions. This type of call becomes very personal. You start to think about the family of the injured person, not just the names but also the faces. You feel the pain, you feel the loss and it all becomes so very real.

As a firefighter I tend to try and put my last call behind me so that I am ready to make the next call. This call is going to take a while to get behind me.

Goodbye Jarod, we’ll miss you buddy.