Holidays at FD

For those that know me, and those that are learning about me, I work for a local fire department. Most people forget that police officers, EMS personnel, and firefighters are on duty 365 days a year, 24 hours each day, in some manner. It doesn't matter if it's your birthday, anniversary, thanksgiving, or Christmas. Someone is on duty to guard your life and safety.

This is a difficult article to write without sounding like a jerk, so here it goes.

So far, in my 20+ years of working for the fire department, I have worked quite a few holidays. During leap year we get stuck working the same holidays as we did last year. Thankfully, my current crew is all about family and spending time with both our blood family and our work family. We have done everything from Easter egg hunts at the station to huge thanksgiving dinners. Although at times the gatherings are broken up by the alarm going off, and the crew going to respond to who knows type of emergency. Leaving our families to wait around without us for an unknown amount of time or sending them home prematurely.

And then, there are the calls we respond to... Majority of which are medical calls. You have a family that feels bad about grandma not being there for thanksgiving or Christmas, so they go get her out of the nursing home for the first time since last thanksgiving or Christmas. While enjoying dinner, grandma starts not feeling well or becomes unconscious, So what do we do?, they ask themselves. We will call 9-1-1. They will know what to do . We arrive on scene to find grandma having difficulty breathing because she is normally on oxygen or grandma with a large piece of turkey blocking her airway, because she doesn't eat solid food anymore. No one knows anything about her medical history or medications, and we, EMS/Fire, are playing a guessing game. Grandma gets transported to the hospital and the whole family is upset. For crying out loud people, Grandma is not a book that you check out to make you feel better about yourself. Try visiting her all year long and invest some time in knowing what's going on with her before taking her home.

Now that the call is done, we get back to find a family of 15 wanting a station tour and to see the trucks. Believe me, I don't want to come off as a jerk, but you have every other day of the year to do this. Why today? We are already having to work during the holidays. We just want to spend a little time with our kids before they grow up and don't like us anymore and put us in a nursing home. 

Please take time to spend time with your family during the rest of the year, not just during the holidays to make yourselves feel good. We as a society should take care of the older generation. Not just stick them in a nursing home, so that they lose their will to thrive. And remember those that  are on shift during the holidays. I kind word or a holiday card goes a long way for those working.