Firefighter Zen by Hersch Wilson

Author:Hersch Wilson
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781608686896
Publisher: New World Library
Published: 2020-04-16T00:00:00+00:00

Now there was nothing. I started CPR. I cut off his shirt, found the midline of his chest, and leaned over him. I locked my elbows, made sure my hands were in the right position, and began compressions.

Finally, our ambulance and extra hands showed up. Adrenalized, I said, “Let’s scoop and run.” We put him on a backboard. His arms and head flopped over the side.

“One, two, three, lift,” I said to the crew. We lifted the board and our patient onto the gurney and slid the gurney into the ambulance. The last thing I saw was the kid’s arm hanging down off the gurney. The EMT slammed the door, and the ambulance screamed into the night, down the interstate to the hospital.

Within minutes, the second patient, another teenager, was loaded in the second ambulance, and it also flew toward the city lights and the hospital.

Then we were done. I rocked back and sat on my heels. I took off my gloves, caked in blood, and tossed them in the wreckage of the car.

We knew they were both gone, both dead. They had slipped our grasp like a man on a cliff letting go and falling into the darkness.

A few minutes later, everyone was gone except our rescue truck and the state police. We were in a small pool of light; floodlights, flashing red lights, and strobes. I looked up into the vault of the New Mexico night. It was dark and clear. The Milky Way was a wild paintbrush stroke of colors across the sky. But I could feel the darkness and the implacability of the universe pressing down on us. Like every firefighter I knew, I prayed for a moment that the universe, or the spirits, would gently embrace these two little ones and care for them.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.