Thursday, April 24, 2014

A CHAPTER FOR THE BOOK

As most of you know, I do plan to write a book about my EMS journey one day.  Tonight while posting photos to the jocofire.com site, I thought about a particular call and wanted to blog about it.  This could possibly be a chapter in that book.  This incident occurred before HIPAA and besides, I know the family and they would not mind the story being told.

Her name was Jerdana.  She was 7 years old and waiting for her school bus on Norris Road not too far off of Barber Mill Road early in the morning on January 20, 1998.  She had crossed the road to get the mail for her mother, who was waiting inside her van at the bus stop.  While handing the mail to her mother, she was struck by an oncoming car.

It was a cold morning and I was at home where I stayed with my mom and dad.  I was a full-time 911 dispatcher and volunteer EMS member of Clayton Area Rescue.  Our first duty unit was on another call that morning and I was at home sleeping in when the pager went off "Johnston Central EMS Station 4 Second Duty Crew, Cleveland Fire Department, 10-50 PI Pedestrian, Norris Road just off Barber Mill Road."  I got up from bed and went to the station.  Since I lived one block from the station, I was generally the first one there and that was the case this morning.  I pulled out unit 44 (1987 Ford Type III Braun).  I checked on the radio that I was "10-12 for additional."  Volunteer MeMe Dunford arrived at the station in a few minutes and we checked enroute.  Stefan and Deidra Fehr called on the radio (I believe he was our chief at the time) and let us know they were meeting us on the scene.  They were paramedics and I was an EMT-Intermediate at the time and I was thankful they were going to be there.

The rest of the events seem like a blur - they all happened so quickly.  I remember arriving to find Cleveland Fire Chief Jeff House performing CPR on the small child along with Deidra and Stefan.  We quickly immobilized the child and loaded her into the ambulance to begin transport to Wake Medical Center as it was known back then.  I remember calling and having Clayton Police to hold the stop lights for us on US 70 as we passed through town on the way to Raleigh in the early morning traffic.  We arrived at the hospital and shortly thereafter this fragile child was declared dead in room one of the hospital after a valiant effort to save her life.

The days and weeks afterward yielded quite a few unusual events.  First of all, Deidra and Stefan were questioned about the treatment of the child.  What were they questioned about??  They had placed an IO in her.  She was years old and back in 1998, OEMS guidelines said interosseous lines could only be put in a child up to 60 months.  It's amazing that today we place IO's first line in everyone who is in cardiac arrest.  We were just ahead of our time.  Deidra and Stefan did what they felt was best for the patient and by today's standards provided PERFECT patient care.  Back then they were just about run out of town because of it by our "medical control" at "JMH" who audited all of our charts at the time.  My havn't we come a long ways.

I think about Jerdana often.  I went to her funeral along with the rest of our crew.  I run into her aunt quite often as she worked at our Smithfield Barbecue for years.  So many people don't do EMS in the town they grew up in nor do they generally transport people they know.  I was blessed and privileged to to do EMS for 20 years in the town I grew up in.  I continue to face the patients I have saved through the years.  I also continue to face the families of the patients I was unable to save through the years.  It's a humbling feeling and at times it makes you feel terrible.  At times, those family members still tell me thank you, even though I wasn't able to save their loved one.  I smile and I always tell them that I remember working on their family member and I tried everything I knew to do, but I'm very sorry it didn't work that day.  I think they need to know that yes, I am human and yes, I'm well aware that they relied on me at one of the worst times of their lives and I wasn't able to do what they wanted.  I want them to know I'm aware of that and I wish it could have gone differently and our lack of success was NOT for lack of compassion, love, care and concern.

There are many patients - countless patients that I do not remember.  There are serious calls - BAD calls that for some reason I've forgotten about or pushed aside in my mind.  I get told all the time about calls I've been on and I really do not remember them.  I can tell you though, there are times they do come back.  I pass an intersection where something happened, run into a family member who jogs my memory, or they simply flood back late at night - like right now - and I see their faces.

Her name was Jerdana.  I never, ever pass Norris Road when I don't think about her.  I never see her mother or aunt when I'm not reminded that on that cold morning, we tried very hard to save a life but it just didn't work.  I thank God for the opportunity to interact with that family.  I thank God that on that cold morning and in the following days, they saw rescue squad members cry, hug, visit and pray with their family for comfort and guidance.  You see, for many, many years whenever I would lose a patient - I would face that family not only on the day of the loss - but at the funeral home and at the funeral.  It gave me closure and I feel like it showed the families that we are human, and even if we couldn't save them, we cared about them, loved them and respected them.


1 comment: