Holding it together: Volunteer EMTs, firefighters are vital part of emergency response

I’ve been a volunteer EMT/firefighter for going on three years now. I volunteer alongside an awesome crew of 13. Together we serve a smaller population of people, although we have one of the largest response areas in Flathead County. We all have day/night jobs, families and house chores to tend to daily. But when the tones go off on our pagers, we drop whatever we are doing, no matter how important that task is to us, because someone else is in need.

We race to the scene of the emergency, all having the same goal in mind, striving to reach the same purpose; rescue, resuscitate and cause no further harm, subsequently going back to our families with peace of mind and body. We go to our paying jobs the next day tired and sore, and sometimes mentally drained because we were called to duty in the middle of the night.

I hear, “on the street,” some folks saying “Oh, well, they are JUST volunteers.” The tone of voice suggesting that we are not as worthy as the paid professionals. I don’t know why that is. To be honest, even I sometimes feel that way about myself. I guess it has just been the view of some in society for so long that the stigma has stuck.

A chaplain recently put it best when he said these words, “Why do you call yourselves JUST volunteers? You go out and do the same job a paid professional does, day in and day out. You work just as hard to attain and keep your licenses and training. So why would you consider yourself any less? As the compensated are called PAID professionals, you are volunteer professionals and should think nothing less of yourselves.”

The reason I am writing this letter for all to read is not really to make a point and defiantly not to take anything away from the paid professionals at all. We could not do it without them. I just feel very strongly that I need to do this. Maybe for my own healing if not for anything else. Just recently, two team members and myself were the first on the scene of a horrific motor vehicle accident where there was a child fatality, and two other children and their mother were injured. It was a grisly scene that no human brain can wrap around to make some sort of normal out of it. But someone has to do it.

And if it were not for all those involved, there would have been more loss of life. I want to thank those involved. Which is the reason for this letter. I want the world to know how many awesome people you have living around you and the sacrifices they make for you every day. The reason that two little boys and their mother are going to return home and start their healing process from this tragedy is because of these people, Olney Fire and EMS, Whitefish Fire and EMS, ALERT, Montana Highway Patrol, Flathead County Sheriff’s Office, Department of Transportation, Austin Funeral Home, Hill Brothers Towing, an ER nurse from Browning, another nurse from an unknown location, a man who was trained in first-aid, the neighbor up the road who put on a vest and directed traffic, another who put a bucket under the leaking gas.

To all those who waited so patiently in the traffic line for over three hours. To those who gave a thumbs up to our responders as they finally got to drive through. To the lady in the white van who graciously offered me a bottled water on her way by. To the ER staffs at North Valley Hospital and KRMC for not only caring for the incoming patients but for the caring words and glances to us of “it’s alI going to be all right.”

For me personally, it was the pat on the back from the radiologist from North Valley Hospital who made me feel I was not alone in this, as I did until that moment. I wish I could say your name in here so the world will know who you are.

To the chiefs and members of surrounding agencies who called and offered their assistance in any way to help us all cope. To the Incident Crisis Management Team for coming so quickly to our sides to help us begin the healing process. To the father of the lost child, in his hours of desperate despair, he stopped to hug and thank a fireman who was on the scene for saving his sons and wife. You don’t know how much that meant to all of us, especially the fireman you embraced. To all friends and family of each and every responder, thank you for the support you have shown and continue to show and give, as this is not something that goes away overnight.

And please, let’s not forget the driver of the other vehicle. Your thoughts and support are needed for him as well. May he heal and let go. Bless his family as they support him through his thoughts.

It was the words of two chiefs of this great county we live in, who called our chief and said, “We are here for you; this is why we are called a brotherhood.” We, career and volunteer, stick together in times of need no matter what. We are a tight family bonded together as we serve and protect our communities sacrificially. Those who get impatient waiting in long lines for long hours, we sincerely apologize, but in those hours there is a much greater priority to tend to.

I ask those who were angered that they not get angered more by reading this but rather be thankful that you are surrounded by selfless people who are ready to respond if you were to have an emergency. I further ask those who try to get a closer look, not out of sheer morbidity but rather curiosity, to stop and think about the injured and their families’ feelings and their need for privacy in their hours of need.

And in the aftermath, when the patients are all off to the hospitals to receive care and responders are left waiting for the scene to be cleared, respect the privacy of the responder left on scene. We are all professionals, as I said before, but we are also all human with compassionate hearts and a drive to help others in need. We break as well. I just ask the next time you are stuck in long lines of traffic to give the responders a thumb’s up, a nod of the head, a glance of sincerity. It would be so much appreciated and remembered to those involved.

Life is not fair sometimes. When hearts are broken, when there is loss of life so tragically and so young, it makes no sense. No sense at all. The paid and volunteer are there to lend a hand to give you support as you go through your tragedy. I call on all you readers to do your part and support the support, as you are greatly needed.

“Courage, strength, honor, duty.”

God bless the “JUST volunteers.”

Veronica Morehead, of Olney, is a volunteer EMT and firefighter.