ambulance driver.

Yesterday while running calls on a truck (which I love doing by the way, no matter how boring it can get) we went to a outpatient surgery center where one of the surgeons proceeded to call the two uniformed men with me "ambulance people"... now, until I started working here, I had no idea how much those words stung to the EMTs and Paramedics who risk life and limb for stupid ass pirates (he and his team had just screwed up a woman's colonoscopy) like himself. I was hurt for them. It is degrading and embarrassing to have the profession you're so proud of demeaned and belittled. This surgeon made me fiercely angry.

I was so mad I woke up this morning, still pissed off. I texted the younger paramedic who I rode with yesterday and about the fact that I was still mad... he had gotten over it. He is used to it. Which is fucking sad. I am still angry for him, and for all the other people that asshat surgeon insulted with that one comment.

So, below, I've copied a post one of my new friends put on his facebook page. It is a bit long, but well worth a read and will help any laymen understand why that surgeon's comment was so insulting:


If any of you ever wonder why WE (EMT's and Paramedics) hate being called an ambulance driver….. this is why… 

You wouldn’t call a policeman a police-car driver or a firefighter a firetruck driver…. so, why call us Ambulance Drivers……

I am Just an ambulance driver, you say as I am on the scene of a vehicle accident that has a popular high school student that is trapped in the submedged S.U.V. in the creek as I’m standing in chest deep water,freezing rain falling and stinging as it hits the exposed parts of my body. Holding her head above water to keep her from drowning until rescue could get there to cut her free—
BUT I’M JUST AN AMBULANCE DRIVER

I comfort a 89 year old woman who just watch me and my partner cover the face of her husband of 64 years as he lay dead in their bathroom floor—
BUT I’M JUST AN AMBULANCE DRIVER

I am on scene at another mva with mom trapped upside down in her car and her dead sons 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

I get called away from my just prepared meal to respond to the middle of B.F.E to a house with no numbers,no porch light on,nobody waiting to signal us in and they because we took too long only to find out the patient left in there own vehicle ten minutes ago…so we smile and walk away from the verbal lashing only because we are
JUST AMBULANCE DRIVERS

I stand in the middle of the street at midnight on the wrong side of town trying to patch the holes and stop the bleeding of a 19 year old shooting victim with the occasional bullet wizzing past our heads we never break stride because this kids life is in our hands—
BUT I’M JUST AN AMBULANCE DRIVER

Or how bout doing chest compressions on a 16 year old girl who decided this life was more than she could take.Her family screaming at us to help as though we are the ones who did this to her.Her lifeless body flailing about as the tube goes in and IV’s being started, my arms and back burning from the pain of 30 minutes of CPR never once giving up, hoping she would make it through and over come whatever lead her to this bad decision—-
BUT I’M JUST AN AMBULANCE DRIVER

Death is all around me and still i go home to live my life
i get kicked,hit,spit on, bled on, puked on,cussed at and disrespected…
i look into the eyes of a lifeless child at 7am and by 8 am i’m holding my child a little tighter and they know nothing about what happened. i have hundreds of hours of classroom time
years of in the field experience i have challenged death and won.

i’ve helped the helpless
i’ve neglected my family for yours
i find comfort in complete chaos
i eat cold meals if 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 a total stranger on a daily basis

ALL BECAUSE I AM JUST AN AMBULANCE DRIVER

I AM AN AMBULANCE DRIVER!!! I DRIVE 90 MPH THROUGH CONJESTED TRAFFIC FULL OF PEOPLE WHO REFUSE TO YEILD RIGHT OF WAY WHILE MY PARTNER STANDS UNRESTRAINED IN THE BACK OF THIS SCREAMING LAND MISSLE SAVING YOUR LOVED ONES LIFE!! NEVER ONCE DOES HE QUESTION MY DRIVING HE KNOWS THAT AT THE END OF THIS SHIFT HE WILL GO HOME TO HIS FAMILY SAFELY BECAUSE I AM AN AMBULANCE DRIVER….