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Help is on the Way is an article written by Courtney Moreno published in L.A Weekly in which she jots down her recollections as an ambulance driver. In this article, the author has written about the various things which she found out during her experience as an ambulance driver. The most interesting part about this article is reading about the author’s insight into the phenomenon which she had never encountered and hence considerably different views towards. She elaborates on quite a few things which changed her preconceived notions and perspectives about her line of work.
At the start of the article, the author says that when she first started out her job as a EMT, she believed that every call that would be made to 911 would be urgent and extremely important to be catered to. However, she states in the next line that this is not in fact true. In the author’s words 90% of the time, the calls are “BS” (Moreno). EMTs are painted as saviors on modern television and film and hence those not living their lives are quite shocked at this statement. This interesting revelation by the author comes in light of her experience of receiving hoax calls from people. She states at the end of this part of her article that on her first actual call which she expected to handle with extreme precision she was surprised to find herself relying on pure compassion to soothe her patient. Despite all her medical knowledge and information she found herself automatically drawn to the emotional distress of her patient and sought to relieve him of it.
In one part of her article labelled as “No Complaints”, Courtney Moreno recalls how they encountered a patient who seemed to be visibly quite alright. She says that this particular individual did not seem to be hurt or in any pain. He was quite receptive and alert, however when asked what seemed to be the problem he would reply that he could not simply “function” (Moreno).
Moreno here says that she had always encountered patients who would have physical problems and who could be treated with medical care. She says that this is exactly what she had always imagined how her line of work could be, that any emergency encountered could be solved easily with medical attention and care. She says that in case the patient encountered any emotional distress, she and her companions would try their best to ease their discomfort through giving them a shoulder to lean on or soothe them with kind words. Before this particular patient, this is exactly what she believed was the protocol to look to in case of emergencies. However, after meeting this particular individual she realized how wrong she was. She recounts how she felt completely helpless and realized the limitations of medical care as well as emotional. The author recounts that at that time she found herself thinking that society has turned modernized in such a way that if a certain individual finds himself at the point which her patient was and he had no friends or family then there was no hope for him. He would have nowhere to turn to in this state. The author says that this was her first encounter into witnessing that no one can in fact save a person from their own mind and there is in fact no emergency medical procedure or protocol in place for such cases.
In another part of her essay named “Honey I’m” the author describes how she has always thought that her profession would make her witness extremely important emergencies and require her to provide extremely efficient medical attention. However, she states that this is not always the case. Contrary to popular belief and her own, being an EMT is not always providing relief to those who urgently need it. She says that in her experience, there are so many instances when people violate their right to health care quite openly (Moreno).
She gives another example as to how when starting her job she used to feel extreme pleasure in announcing “We’re here to help” to someone in distress. However she says that when people like the lady mentioned asks for medical attention utilizing resources and labor she cannot bring herself to say those words and mean them sincerely from her heart (Moreno).
References
Moreno, Courtney. 'Help Is On The Way: Tales Of An Ambulance Driver'. LA Weekly. N.p., 2014. Web. 20 Dec. 2014. < http://www.laweekly.com/2009-04-02/news/help-is-on-the-way/?showFullText=true. >
