Time to Save the Drowning
In the Fall of 1991, I sat in a classroom with 11 other students and one instructor on the first night of Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) class. The 90 hour course would lay the foundation for what has been a very interesting career. We learned cardiac arrest management, bandaging, splinting and some anatomy and physiology. We did not learn that how to swim. We were never taught that a career in public safety had the potential to drown us. Perhaps in 1991, no one really knew. No one told us that a career in public safety meant that we would experience life differently from those around us. Even though we continued to go to class or to a "normal" job, even though we continued to celebrate birthdays and holidays with family and friends, even though we continued to go to church and participate in social events; no one told us we were experiencing life differently. I guess we knew that we were seeing and experiencing things that most people don't see and experie...