I read an interesting article in January's Popular Mechanics. Yes I read Popular Mechanics, my Dad sends that McClain's and Chatelaine in and I read all 3 of them cover to cover. You know you're getting old when you read McClain's.
Anyways the article was titled "The Deadly Season" by Michael Finkel and was about ski patrolers setting off preventative avalanches. Ski patrolers......... smile.......... Even though I lived at the base of Sun Peaks (Todd Mountain back in the day) for years and years I've never actually skied. But I'm smiling because I've known a lot of ski patrolers. And mine rescuers and firefighters, and ambulance attendants and industrial first aiders. All incredible people doing an incredibly hard job. Hard and sometimes dangerous. All industries have workplace loss;."In 2008, 1036 workplace deaths were recorded in Canada down from 1055 the previous year. This represents more than 2 deaths every single day. Another 942, 478 were injured or became ill." http://www.ccohs.ca/events/mourning/ America lost 5, 071 the same year. http://www.bls.gov/iif/ Sad, sad, sad. The CCOHS site has a great article about International Day of mourning.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhh but the rescuers. The ones who put their life on the line to save others. I had the privileged of walking amongst them for many years. I taught first aid, I did first aid and was involved in competitions. Rescue training is an on going thing. It's a lot of long hard hours, sacrifice and self discipline. Check out this article for what I'm sure will tell a story many of my friends can relate to. http://thetyee.ca/News/2009/06/05/BeAParamedic/index.html?commentsfilter=0 The average career span for a paramedic in Los Angeles is 8 years. http://www.allbusiness.com/north-america/united-states-california-metro-areas/341705-1.html That's life for the professionals, I've probably met more volunteer rescuers than I have professionals. And it's risky. The first thing we're taught is to ensure no danger to others or ourselves. I ran many a drill where there was a hidden hazard and I was cautioned not to enter the scene until it was secure. "Nothing like becoming a victim yourself and needing to be rescued" I was always told. But it happens. Statistics were surprisingly hard to come up with but here's what I found: Between 1992 and 1997, the study finds 114 EMTs and paramedics were killed on the job, more than half of them in ambulance crashes. That's an estimated 12.7 fatalities per 100,000 EMS workers, making it close to the death rates for police (14.2) and firefighters (16.5) in the same time period, the study says. And it's more than twice the national average for all workers (5.0). http://www.emsedsem.org/Prior%20Articles/EMS_Fatalities%20from%20JEMS.pdf
And that's just the day to day rescues never mind the catastrophes. We lost 343 firefighters and paramedics plus 23 police officers on 9/11. Someday I'll tell you about where I was on that horrible day. But because I was soooooo far removed from the crisis it took me days, possibly weeks to realize that being part of the family of emergency responders I had lost brothers and sisters.
The funny thing is that I was a terrible first aider, I lacked maturity, thoroughness and competitiveness but I learned a lot. I've always said that one of the reasons I flourished in Asia was because of my first aid training. No it wasn't the actual skills of how to strap someone to a spine board that I used but the problem solving skills were invaluable. Living overseas is a constant stream of problems to be solved and I used everything I knew about thinking on my feet. And I had great, great teachers. Like any job I might have struggled with some of the personalities of my co-workers but never their integrity. My memory is filled with great colorful characters who knew how to lift a car off a patient and soothe a child's scraped knee. All in a days work. I learned sportsmanship and compassion but most of all I learned team work. I haven't done first aid in probably 10 years. I'm guessing that my first competition was in 1996 but I am still close friends with every person on that team and all the teams after it. They are my go to people. The ones I feel safe with. On the other hand I've lived in 3 states other than this one in the last 7 years and I'm only friends with a few people in all of those moves. Heck I've been in 2 churches in the last 3 years and I'm not still friends with ANY of the of the people there! Maybe that has to do with the amount of trust you put in people. Or the trust you HAVE to put in your co-workers when your working together under less than ideal circumstances. Maybe it has to do with the type of people the industry attracts. I don't know, but I know that I miss it.
The Popular Mechanics article attests to the closeness of ski patrolers. It talks about the atmosphere in the patrol locker room in Big Sky resort in Montana at the end of the day: "Beers are distributed as the afternoon wanes, but no one pops the top, or starts to change out of uniform, until the last of the on-duty patrolers enter the locker room. That's a strict patroler tradition, I'm told. They won't even take their boots off until everyone is safely home."
Dang I envy that! In my craving for a society or a group of friends that looks out for each other, not relaxing until everyone is safe and accounted for means a lot to me. Actually a metaphor for the church reaching the lost as well. To care about each other enough to want everyone to be safe and not to relax until they are. If your boots are on it means that you're prepared to go back out if needed. Here's to the rescuers. And here's to keeping your boots on.
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