- Joined
- May 29, 2004
- Messages
- 26
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I'm driving down the street. It's 8:30pm and on a fairly dark road. I come to an intersection and see a car facing a light pole. I thaught that a car had just hit the light pole. I see people running around. As I get closer, I realise that the car didn't hit a pole, but hit another car. I normally do not stop for accidents. But, since no police and ambulance had arrived on the scene just yet, I pull over and turn on my warning lights. I've been trained to deal with emergency situations and I know CPR. So I go to the first car where I see the driver on the passenger side of the car in bad condition but not critical. I tell the driver not to move. He yells back at me that he has to move because he's in pain. I tell him that he could have spinal injury and not to move. Another responder comes over and I tell him I'm a registered medical assistant and to stay with the driver while I check the other car. As I approach the other car, I see 2 children badly hurt. The little girl was complaining of chest pains and had blood all over her. I noticed that her mouth was cut. Someone comes over and tells me that she's a nurse. I think thank God. She tells me the mother is in bad shape. So I walk with her to the other side of the car. There is a little boy in the rear passenger side. We check vitals and he's badly hurt but in and out of it. The nurse starts talking to the boy to try to keep him awake. While she is talking to the boy, I turn my attention to the passenger, the mother. She's in critical condition. I talk in a loud voice and ask her can she hear me and not to move. She unresponsive. I yell to the nurse that the mother has no pulse. The mother is trapped and we can't get her out of the car to start CPR. At this moment, I'm starting to lose it. I'm yelling at the nurse to check for a pulse, I feel no pulse and she has stopped breathing. The mother takes gulps of breathes and then goes still. Tears our starting to come to my eye's as I watch this woman die before my eyes. I tell myself be strong for the kids. They don't know that thier mother has just passed. I turn to the nurse and say "She has died". The nurse says she knows. She said she is a trama nurse and those gulps of air I witnessed, where her last breath. I beg the nurse to please just check her pulse. The nurse says to me that there is nothing we can do for her. She says that we must focus on the children now. The boy pulse is growing weaker and weaker by the minute. The cops are here now. They don't help us. Me and the nurse start screaming for a medic. The ambulance arrives. They go to the first car and take care of the man in the first car. By this time me and the nurse are screaming at the police to get some help over here because we are losing the little boy. The father who was the driver with the mother and the 2 children comes over and he's speaking Hindi. But he does speak a little english and he ask me could he use my phone. I hand him the phone but he is having a hard time dialing the number he wanted to call. Finally, a medic come to help us. They check the pulse of the mother and confirms her death. The police officer comes over to the father and ask for drivers license and things. But the father is in shock and doesn't realise what's going on. The nurse attends the father. I talk with the police officer and break down crying. The father comes over to me and ask for my phone again. I give it to him. He then goes over to try to wake his wife. The policeman tells him that his wife is dead and that he needs to be strong for his kids. The father hands me my cellphone back. Now, my hands are soaked in blood. The medics get the 2 children out of the car and the little girls screams for her mother. They put the father and 2 children in the ambulance and head to the hospital about 5 miles down the road. I get into my car and follow. When I arrive at the hospital, I inform the staff that I was a First Aid responder to the accident and that I have blood all over my hands. I ask if I could wash them. They let me in the back. I start crying again as I wash the blood from my hands. The nurse tells me and the father to go into the family room. They ask me to stay with the father since he had no one with him at the time. Me and father go into the family room and weap. We say prayers and weap some more. He ask me about his wife and son. I tell him that they will be taken care of just be strong. I didn't want to tell him that his wife is dead. His family come into the room. They talk with me and ask what happened. I tell them all that I know. They thank me for stopping and helping and being there with the father. The doctors come in and tell us about the children. The little girl is stable. The little boy is on life support. They will be transfered to Children's hospital. The doctors say the little boy was having a little trouble breathing but he's needs to go to Children's hospital. They ask the father if he wants to be treated and he declines treatment. The doctors leave out and I talk more with the family and offer transportation to Children's if they like. The family told me that they have a car, so, I thank them for allowing me to be there with them during this crises and offer my apology for not being able to do more for his wife. I leave feeling hurt and angry that I couldn't save this woman. I didn't know her name and never met this family. But none of that mattered. It was within me to help. I wanted to save her. I wanted to do more but I couldn't. I now know when doctors say one never gets over when someone dies. I now know why some of them even cry. I question rather I should ever stop at another accident now. However, my spirit would never allow me to just drive by and accident when there is no help on scene. I said a prayer tonight for that family. That family has only made my desire to become a physician even stronger. I'll never forget the look in that mothers eyes as see passed away before me. I'll never forget the cries of that father and his children. And, the healing flame within me is brighter than ever now. I wish I could have did more for her. I wish I knew more about healing. Now I know that God must realise the deep calling of medicine within me. I've always believed that medicine is a calling. It's spiritual to me. It's a position in the spiritual realm like no other position in life and it's calling me. Had I been born into a tribe that has shamen's, I would have been a shamen because the need to heal born's within my spirit. This is my calling.
