He warmed my cold heart!!!

He warmed my Cold heart,

I've been in the EMS field for a long time and over the years I've suffered from what is known in the EMS world as "Burn Out". What is Burn Out? Well its a loss off feelings for those around you, You see suffering and you hear cries but you feel nothing, It's caused by a number of things, most common cause is work overload. The Department I work for responded to 32,000 plus EMS calls in the year 2008. That's 32,000 calls with only 9 ambulances. That's 3,555 calls per Ambulance per year. We average 12 to 14 calls per shift. Each call take about one hr. from start to finish if we are lucky. Sometimes there's a one hr wait for a hospital bed, Once we get to the E.R. People go to the hospital for everything from a cold, constipation, or diarrhea to a stumped toe. I just love it when some one tells us they called an ambulance because they don't want to wait for an appointment with there Dr. This is why our E.R.'s are so over whelmed now.This too is a major cause of "Burn Out" So you can imagine how annoying it is when Tones go off and we race down the streets at break neck speeds to reach our destination to find some one not sick or hurt, but "Drunk or upset because they have had a fight with they're significant other".Burn Out is also due to seeing a lot of bad things. After seeing so many die, a medic often becomes numb. This is where I have been for a while now. Tired numb and fed up.
All of that changed when tones came in for us to respond to a burn. The call came in as an ALPHA call meaning minor incidence. No fire truck just my Ambulance responding to " one backed into a space heater burn to the Patients leg. Well I did what I always do when an Alpha call comes in. I fussed all the way to the call,Thinking this was yet another minor encodent that did not need emrgancy responce or Hospital care.Well to my surprise when we pulled up to the house someone met us waveing there hands frantickly and yelling to hurry. I looked at my partner and said there might be something to this. As we entered the house everyone was yelling for us to hurry and do something. Someone explained that a 10 year old little boy backed into a flame burnning space heater and caught his clothes on fire. His Grand Parents had put the fire out and placed the boy in a tub of cool water. I stepped into the bath room to find a naked little boy shivering in a tub. As we picked him up his skin sluthed off. He had1st and 2nd degree burns on the back of both buttocks and both legs down to his ankles. We placed him face down on our stretcher, placing bandages on the wounds and cooling them with steral water. The boy gripped the railes of the stretcher so hard his nuckles were white. I was looking for an I.V. sight when this child looked up at my partner and I and said "I don't want to cry but I think I might". I thought my heart would break, so much emotion welled up in me. It was hard to focus on my job. My partner told the boy don't worry about it, you cry if you want to, and I might cry with you. Grandmother road in with us to the hospital. She was so scared for him and you could see the worry in her eyes. I told her everything was going to be O.K.
I have never seen a child so sweet and hummble. Not once did he show anthing other than strength respect for those around him. As we moved him to the hospital bed, he thanked me for taking care of him. And I heard him tell his GrandMother he was sorry for the accident. I stepped outside after turning care over to the E.R. staff and for the first time in a long time I cried, I felt needed, I felt like a Medic.
I later found out talking with the Grand mother that she was raising the boy and his little sister on her on. With help from her Boyfriend. She also told me that she was fighting a battle with Breast cancer and had to have a breast ectomy. I checked up on them a couple of weeks later The boy was so glad to see me and began to tell me about the physical therapy he was going to. His GrandMother told me he was doing very well and that his therapist bragged on him for doing so well. He was recovering at great speed and did not complain. What an amazzing young boy. It was near Christmas and looking around the home, I could see how hard this family was having it. There was very little under the Christmas tree, But there was so much love in the room it felt contaguess.
I whent back to the Fire station and told the crew I work with about the boy and his family. We agreed to adopt this family for Christmas. We raised enough money to buy two new bikes for the boy and his sister and some other gifts. We cooked Christmas dinner and suprised the boy at his house on Christmas day. He was so happy and so excited about the bike he picked it up and toted it back to the house so the wheels would not get dirty. This was by far the most wonderful Chritmas ever. This young boy warmed my cold heart. His Name is Aaron.