Israeli Paramedics Association

When God Made Paramedics

When the Lord made Paramedics, he was into his sixth day
of overtime when an angel appeared and said,
"You're doing a lot of fiddling around on this one."
And the Lord said, "Have you read the specs on this
order?  A paramedic has to be able to carry an injured person up
a wet, grassy hill in the dark, dodge stray bullets to reach a dying child unarmed,
enter homes the health inspector wouldn't touch, and not wrinkle his
uniform."  "He has to be able to lift 3 times his own weight,
crawl into wrecked cars with barely enough room to move, and console a
grieving mother as he is doing CPR on a baby he knows will never breath
again."  "He has to be in top mental condition at all times,running on no sleep, black coffee and half-eaten meals. 
And he has to have six pairs of hands."
The angel shook her head slowly and said, "Six pairs of hands...no way."
"It's not the hands that are causing me problems," said the Lord, "It's the three pairs of eyes a medic has to have."
"That's on the standard model?" asked the angel.
The Lord nodded.  "One pair that sees open sores as he's drawing blood and asks the patient they may be HIV positive," (When he already knows and wishes he'd taken that accounting job.)  "Another pair here in the side of his head for his partners' safety.  And another pair of eyes here in front that can look reassuringly
at a bleeding victim and say, "You'll be all
right ma'am when he knows it isn't so."

"Lord," said the angel, touching his sleeve,
"rest and work on this tomorrow."
"I can't,"  said the Lord, "I already have a model that can talk a
250 pound drunk out from behind a steering wheel
without incident and feed a family of five on a private service paycheck."

The angel circled the model of the paramedic very
slowly, "Can it think?" she asked.
"You bet," said the Lord.  "It can tell you the symptoms of 100
illnesses; recite drug calculations in it's sleep;
intubate, defibrillate, medicate, and continue CPR nonstop over
terrain that any doctor would fear...and still it keeps it's sense
of humor.  This paramedic also has phenomenal personal
control.  He can deal with a multi-victim trauma, coax
a frightened elderly person to unlock their door, comfort a murder
victim's family, and then read in
the daily paper how paramedics were unable to locate a
house quickly enough, allowing the person to die.  A house which had
no street sign, no house numbers, no phone to call back."

Finally, the angel bent over and ran her finger across
the cheek of the paramedic. 
"There's a leak," she pronounced. 
"I told you that you were trying to put too much into this
model."

"That's not a leak," said the Lord, "It's a tear."
"What's the tear for?" asked the angel.
"It's for bottled-up emotions, for patients they've
tried in vain to save, for commitment to that hope that they will make
a difference in a person's chance to survive, for life."
"You're a genius," said the angel.

The Lord looked somber. 
"I didn't put it there," 
He said.

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Paramedic Neomi Zvi - Jan 2000