Issue 9 - November/December 2002

The Melody in the Midst of Chaos

   I was just about to spoon the last of my Christmas dinner into my mouth when my pager went off, calling the EMT’s to respond to a serious roll-over accident.

   I was having dinner at my Grandparents’ house Christmas Day, 2001. It was 12:30 pm. My great aunt and uncle and their daughter were there along with my parents and siblings. There’s just something special about holiday meals. When families get together and bake for hours in the great expectation of “the feast.” When my pager went off I quickly got up, grabbed my winter jacket, and said a hasty good-bye to the “feasters.”

   The ambulance met me at my driveway and I hopped in. It was five long minutes before we arrived on scene; during which I got things ready while my partner drove.

   When I stepped out of the ambulance at the scene of the accident, the cold winter wind stung my face as it rushed and swirled around me. “Scene size-up” showed that it was a single vehicle accident and that we had six patients, two of which were unharmed. We quickly radioed dispatch that we needed Cheyenne Wells (the closest town in our county with an ambulance service) to roll one of their ambulance ASAP. My partner was led to a car where a good Samaritan had taken in the father of the family involved in the accident and the two unharmed children. Another child, the mother, and the grandmother were still trapped in the mangled SUV. That is where I went.

   As I made my way down the steep ditch I tried to piece together the events leading to the accident. My decent was painstakingly slow as I had to watch my footing in the knee deep snow and dead weeds.

   When the unsuspecting family had hit an icy spot on the highway, the father lost control and they rolled down a steep hillside. The entire passenger side of the SUV was smashed after it had collided with a cement boulder, trapping three of the six frightened people inside. I was told the father had managed to get himself and the two young children out. Another family traveling not too far behind them had stopped to help and kindly offered their warm car for the kids and their father. The mother of the helpful family happened to be a nurse and she helped the people who were trapped and called 911.

   The vehicle was sitting upright and there were bystanders talking with the people trapped inside. The nurse motioned to me and when I got to her she gave me a quick report. The little 10-year-old boy was laying in the back seat covered with blankets to keep from getting hypothermia. A deep laceration on his forehead where he had met the back of the seat in front of him had caused a lot of bleeding but with light pressure, the nurse had already gotten it under control. He was conscious, alert and oriented. Next was the mother, who’s legs were pinned between the front passenger seat and the middle-back seat where she was sitting. She was conscious, alert and oriented, but in obvious pain. There wasn’t a whole lot I could do for her besides the administration of oxygen to help her breath, and try to keep her calm until the firemen got there with the Jaws of Life. The grandmother however, was in bad shape. She was unresponsive with spontaneous eye opening, labored breathing, and her abdomen was ridged, indicating internal bleeding. I was beginning to feel overwhelmed. I had been an EMT for roughly 4 months and had never seen anything quite this bad, and with so many patients! But right when I was wishing I had another EMT, one showed up. A fellow colleague of mine who’s both a good friend and an experienced EMT (exactly what I needed at the time!). I gave her a quick report with special emphasis on the grandmother who’s pulse was getting weaker and weaker. I stabilized her head while the firemen tried to free the door.

   All around was chaos, pure chaos. We learn in EMT training to triage patients in MCIs (Multiple Casualty Incidents) in an orderly and controlled manner. I’d like to know if there is such a thing! It’s really hard to keep firemen, policemen, bystanders, fellow EMTs, and yourself from going in every direction all at the same time! If you’re not careful the adrenaline will get the better of you, believe me, I know! Sometimes you just have to stop and take a deep breath. As the firemen were working on the door, I did just that. I took a deep breath and said a little prayer.

   Something happened in that moment that I will never forget. It only lasted for about five seconds but I can still remember it as though it were yesterday.

   Everything around me became quiet and hazy-like. All the yelling and noise from the Jaws of Life was drowned out by the sound of a music-box melody I had never heard before! I really didn’t pay that much attention to it at the time but I remember feeling an overwhelming sense of peace and I was comforted. But just as quickly as it had come, I was suddenly pulled back to reality and the beautiful music was replaced with yelling and the peace back to chaos. But it was different, I now had this peace within me that made me stronger and allayed my fears.

   It was at that time when I lost the grandmother’s weak pulse and she stopped breathing. I called to my partner for help! It was now time for a rapid extrication where we focus more on keeping the patient alive than on spinal immobilization. I managed to free her legs and with the help of our firemen, my partner and I were able to get her out of the SUV and onto a spine-board. Then it came down to one of the hardest things an EMT as a health care professional can face. Triage at a multiple casualty incident starts with saving the patients you know that (within your scope of practice) you can save. My partner and I knew that with the number of patients we had compared to the number of EMTs, that it would be futile for us to spend time trying to save one that we knew didn’t have a chance, to the detriment of those we could.

   ...We had to let her go. It is one of the hardest decisions you have to make as an EMT. But even though it was hard for me, I still had that peace in my heart.

   In the meantime, the mother’s condition had worsened. She had two broken femurs and most likely a fractured pelvis from the “mechanism of her injury.” It took an additional ten to fifteen minutes to extricate her from the mangled mess of metal. By that time the Cheyenne Wells ambulance had arrived and they began to help extricate the boy. The EMTs finally out numbered the patients and our scene became more organized.

   My partner and the Cheyenne Wells EMTs took the mother and son in their ambulance to Hugo (the closest hospital to the west), where they met the Flight for Life crews. My other partner (the one I had arrived with) and I took the father in our ambulance to the hospital in Cheyenne Wells. During the twenty minute transport I had a chance to talk with him. I found out that he was a pastor and that they were on their way to visit some family in our area for the holiday. It was his mother who had died. The pain he felt over her death was evident, but later he told me that for sometime she had been ready to be with her Lord.

   The whole family has recovered nicely, and with some rehabilitation, are doing well.

   I got home around 6:00 pm that night. I was exhausted. I had a message to call my partner, the one who had gone with the mother and son. She wanted to make sure I was okay. I had been trying to explain the music I had heard to myself all day. Maybe there really was a music box in the vehicle and somebody had just bumped it and turned it on! But after I had discussed it with my partner, who is also a Christian, we were both convinced that the music had come from God. In the process of extricating the mother, my partner and some of the firemen had emptied everything out of the vehicle in order to gain access. She said there was no music box in the vehicle! Wow.

   The whole experience taught me that God is always with us. No matter where we are or what we are doing, He’s always there. I just needed to be reminded of that. Also that even in a terrible situation He can give us hope and peace, even if it is just in the sound of a music-box melody.

   “Blessed be the Lord, because He hath heard the voice of my supplications. The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in Him, and I am helped: therefore my heart rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise Him.” - Psalm 28:6-7

   “Give ear, O Lord, unto my prayer; and attend to the voice of my supplications. In the day of my trouble I will call upon Thee: for Thou wilt answer me.” - Psalm 86:6-7

   “I sought the Lord and He heard me, He delivered me from all my fears.” - Psalm 34:4

Laura Elizabeth Bunch is a 21 year old Homeschool graduate and current EMT-B.

You can write to her here at Not Ashamed Magazine or e-mail her

Not Ashamed Magazine   P.O. Box 405, Kit Carson, CO  80825

Phone: (719) 962-3228  -  Fax: (719) 962-3232  -  Hours: 10AM-5PM (Mountain Time) Monday-Friday

E-mail

Sample Issue: $2.50  ~  1 Year Subscription (6 Issues): $12.00

©2005 Not Ashamed Magazine.  All text, graphics, photos, and other media on this site is copyrighted,

please do not use without permission.  E-mail the webmaster

home  ~  about us  ~  not ashamed counsel  ~  subscribe  ~  submitting  ~  bookstore  ~  guestbook  ~  links