He was the lead instructor of the paramedic program I was in. The thing most striking about him was the fact he seemed to enjoy constructing his tests so that few could get more than 80%. His middle name should have been “demanding.” I never had much respect for him until after I completed the course and started interacting with him as he was the head of the ER department. Sometimes he would come out of the ER to have his hourly cigarette and then sit in the ambulance like a kid sitting in a firetruck for the first time.
A call was paged out for the ER doc who had collapsed in the emergency room. It seemed like he had an aneurism and needed to be lifeflighted to a trauma center. I was the paramedic, along with a nurse, who transported him to the airport. We were within sight of the airport when he coded. The impact of that unsuccessful code left us empty because he was someone we knew so well. He had been an excellent ER doctor and trainer of paramedics but now was gone.
How brief life is for any one of us and there is an appointment that every one of us has to keep:
And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment,
Life is constantly changing for all of us. Death is never really expected and always leaves us empty. How are you handling the need to expect the unexpected?
Think about it.
Gary