Archive for November 26th, 2009
Why we do what we do
“You mean no one told you?” the paramedic asked as he helped himself to a cup of coffee in the patrol building. No, I said, most of the time the ski patrol doesn’t find out what happens to the injured once they leave the resort.
Three weeks earlier, an 11-year-0ld girl was knocked to the ground on a ski slope just up the mountain from the main lodge. She was unconscious when the first patrollers arrived on the scene.
That incident was four years ago and the memory of it is still crystal clear for me. At the mountain where I patrolled, each 8-hour duty shift had its own crew of patrollers, supervised by a hill captain. We were the Saturday night crew, and on a good night there were five of us — which meant that just one accident would take all of the available patrollers off the mountain. We had been going from incident to incident the entire night.
The girl came to while we were strapping her to a back board and she was able to tell us her mom’s cell phone number. While the other patrollers brought the girl down off the mountain, as hill captain I had the duty of calling her mother.
The ambulance paramedics had the girl flown by medical helicopter to the children’s hospital, and that was the last the patrollers had known about what happened to her until the paramedic crew was on duty again. The girl fractured the C4 vertebra in her neck — the same one the late actor Christopher Reeve broke in a riding accident.
But the girl was going to be alright. The paramedic said she was already out of the hospital, even though she had to wear a neck brace for a few months.
“You guys did good,” the paramedic told the group of patrollers now grouped around him.
I’ve been thinking about that girl a lot lately, probably because the ski patrol director and others have been asking me if I wanted to come back to the patrol after taking a hiatus due to work. I haven’t decided yet. I’d have to go through the medical training again because it has changed in the last several years. Basic volunteer patrollers have the training equivalent to an emergency medical technician (EMT) and are recognized as such in many states.
But why do it? I, like many of the patrollers I know, did it because I have to help people. I didn’t do it for the recognition because there wasn’t any. I simply can’t ignore someone in need. My heart breaks when I see a person hurting, regardless of the circumstances.
Thank you to all of you out there who serve the public, be it police, fire, military, medical or any of a number of volunteer organizations. Be assured that your work is appreciated and it is the right thing to do.
