Disclaimer: Not for my younger readers. Graphic material is talked about.
I'm sharing this as a means of trying to decompress from this event.
I got to be the old Rob for a little while tonight. Someone was stabbed right outside of my house about 45 minutes ago. I didn't even think about it, I just ran out, right into the middle of it. It's funny, well not really funny, especially if you ask Lizze (who isn't to happy with me right now) but I didn't miss a beat or hesitate. I was always the guy running into the places everyone else was running out of.
I got a pair of gloves from the one of the cops and did what I trained to do....be a paramedic.
I identified the stab wounds and assessed the severity of each wound. I could get a hold of any scissors to cut his shirt off, so I had to work around it. I covered the largest wound with a non-occlusive dressing and did what I could to keep it from getting worse. The man in the road was agitated and starting to fight back, which made it difficult to help him.
I'm still shaking from the adrenalin rush. Normally, there a process to this that helps to sorta complete the experience. You get the call, arrive on scene, assess the patient and transport. There is something about completing these steps that helps you to process everything and physically cope with what you have just witnessed. This guy was in really bad shape. It was kinda strange because it's been years since I managed a trauma but it was like I never quit. This guy was stabbed 2 times. Once in the chest, right above his heart and the other was in the lower abdomen. I was actually holding his part of his lower bowel that had come through the 4 or 5 inch wound in lower abdomen.
When the medics arrived on scene, I helped package him up and told them what I had found. Then they were off to the hospital and I was standing there shaking from the sudden rush of adrenalin. By this time Lizze had come outside and was trying to find me cause she didn't know what had happened. Elliott was awake and starting to freak out as well.
It really wasn't very smart of me to do this. I had no idea what I was running into and I should have been thinking about my family instead. However, I was like something was triggered inside me and I just reacted. I thought I had gotten this all out of my system but clearly that's not the case. I realize now, just how much I miss doing this. It was never about the money cause the money sucked but instead it was about helping people and making a difference..
I'm not sure what we are going to do now. I know this could happen anywhere but this is getting worse. One witness told me that there was a party and people started exchanging gun fire. I know that there was another serious injury at that location as well.
I have got to get my family to a safer place. This happened way to close to home and I fell like I need to address this issue and ensure all of our safety.
This is not what I expected to have happen this evening and now I'm going to try to go to bed and get some sleep.
Goodnight
