NOT an ambulance driver!

[StreetDoc67]

The Artist in the Ambulance . . . A Tribute to EMS

“Late night, brakes lock, hear the tires squeal
Red light, can't stop so I spin the wheel
My world goes black before I feel an angel steal me from the
Greedy jaws of death and chance, and pull me in with steady hands
They've given me a second chance, the artist in the ambulance”
from The Artist in the Ambulance by Thrice

Standing in chest deep water, with freezing rain falling all around while holding the unconscious driver’s head above water to keep her from drowning until fire can get there to cut her free---
But I’m JUST AN AMBULANCE DRIVER

Comforting a 89 year old woman who just watched me and my partner cover the face of her husband of 64 years as he lay dead on their bathroom floor---
But I'm JUST AN AMBULANCE DRIVER

On scene at a motor vehicle accident with a mom trapped upside down in her car and her dead son’s body laying on top of her, without a second thought for my own safety I crawl into the wreckage to take C-spine control and calm the frantic lady---
but I'm JUST AN AMBULANCE DRIVER

Called away from my just prepared meal to respond to a house without numbers, no porch light on, or nobody waiting to signal us in and then they bitch because we took too long only to find out the patient was taken by family members in their own personal vehicle ten minutes earlier. So we smile and walk away from the verbal lashing, never pointing out that they should have waited for us if the patient was that bad or, better yet, just have taken him themselves in the first place if he wasn’t and not wasted out time or put us in danger driving lights and sirens through rush hour traffic ---
only because we are JUST AMBULANCE DRIVERS

Kneeling in the middle of a street at midnight in a bad section of town trying to patch the holes and stop the bleeding of a 19 year old shooting victim with the occasional bullet whizzing past our heads we never break stride because this kids life is in our hands---
but I'm JUST AN AMBULANCE DRIVER

Doing chest compressions on a 16 year old girl who decided this life was more than she could take with her family screaming at us to help as though we are the ones who did this to her. Her eyes unmoving as the tube goes in, IV's are started and meds are pushed, my arms and back burning from the pain of 20 minutes of CPR never once giving up, hoping she would make it back and overcome whatever led her to make such a horrible decision----
but I'm JUST AN AMBULANCE DRIVER

Death is all around me and still I go on living.
I get kicked, hit, spit on, bled on, puked on and worse.
I’ve looked into the eyes of a lifeless child at 4 am on Christmas night and by 8 am I'm holding my child a little tighter and they know nothing about what hell daddy just experienced.
I have hundreds of hours of classroom time and years of experience on the streets.
I have challenged death and won though more often than not the Reaper takes the day.
I've helped the helpless.
I've neglected my family for yours.
I find calm in complete chaos.
I eat cold meals when I eat at all.
I work with no sleep for days at a time.
I miss birthdays, holidays and school functions.
I put myself in harms way for total strangers on a daily basis.
I save more lives in a month than most cops and fire fighters do in their entire careers.

And it’s NOT BECAUSE I AM JUST AN AMBULANCE DRIVER!

I am a medical professional, not just a guy that drives a truck and ignores traffic signals. I am under paid, over worked and under appreciated by the majority of the public and barely tolerated as necessary by those administrators that sign my pay checks every two weeks. I am the red-headed bastard step child of the public safety and health care communities but I am the one person you will need most in this world when your life hangs by a thread.

I AM AN EMERGENCY MEDICAL TECHNICIAN.

I AM A PARAMEDIC.

I AM THE ARTIST IN THE AMBULANCE

[TerragonSix]

[B]

I am a medical professional, not just a guy that drives a truck and ignores traffic signals. I am under paid, over worked and under appreciated by the majority of the public and barely tolerated as necessary by those administrators that sign my pay checks every two weeks. I am the red-headed bastard step child of the public safety and health care communities but I am the one person you will need most in this world when your life hangs by a thread.

That's about the gist of it. Good poem. That's going in my sig line.

[screaming pizza]

We burn-outs rock.

[strwblue]

That's about the gist of it. Good poem. That's going in my sig line.

AMEN BROTHER AMEN....and by the way I love your myspace quote about liberals LOL..

[GaHazMedic]

That kind of looks familiar...

http://www.ghettomedic.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5801

[StreetDoc67]

That kind of looks familiar...

http://www.ghettomedic.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5801

Sure does!

Wasn't taking credit for it, just passing it along, though it looks like your original has been modified somewhat.

[Mrsprincess]

That's a Bad A** Song by Thrice!