I've been volunteering in my town since late December, and I've run many calls in that short time. I even saw my first dead body - a 19y/o who shot himself in the head. Well, first dead body other than at funerals and in pictures and such.

Most calls are right out of the textbooks. Straight to the point. Yadda yadda yadda.

Some calls are false alarms.

Other calls surprise us... like one we got tonight.

The call was for an unconscious 63y/o woman not breathing. Time down was unknown, so we knew we had to get there as fast as we could. Can you say 95mph down a 50mph highway?

We arrive right as the ambulance does, and their Paramedic runs on inside. She was cold. The monitor is hooked up, and there is no electric activity in her heart. They shock her, but she doesn't respond. She'd been dead long enough to go through rigor.

I had to stand there and watch the husband cry.


Going back outside, I approached the EMT as he stood by the ambulance and was promptly offered an egg roll. I admit - I lol'd.

That's what we have to do, though. It becomes like second nature to us. Stare death in the face, and then crack a joke, or else it consumes us and destroys whatever sanity we have left.