The medical world is a highly specialized one with only one purpose and that is to save lives. Notwithstanding, it is also a very expensive world with innumerable details and many needed partners and research centers. The people who have chosen this field for their carreers may be counted among the most elite on this planet, the reason being, the preservation of life.
They are the real heroes in the real life, forget about Marvel Comics and such childish illusions. In the medical world, illusions will kill you. A bacterial cell hiding in the blood can mutate into a very real and deadly affair that can kill within hours if not treated in time. A broken bone in real life causes real pain. The heart attack can leave a gaping hole in the hearts of others when all efforts to resuscitate fail, and untold more examples are there. Life is a precious thing and almost all people are careful to keep it for as long as they can. That is why we have the medical field of trained specialists to do just that: to keep us alive for as long as it is within their power to do so.
From the top surgical doctors to administrative leadership to the RN, to the CNA, the technicians to the food specialists to the maintenance workers to the cleaners to the security guards to the greeting staff, they are all there to help you get the care you need, whether in the office of the health provider or onboard a life flight preparing to land and turn you over to the critical care specialists. They are working 25/8/366 a year to keep us alive in the event we need them to. And we need them.
Hospitals are very expensive to operate, and the costs of keeping them running night and day are very high. Costs such as administration, billing, personnel, maintenance, repairs, power fed in and standby generators, fuel, water, food, waste, garbage desposal, ambulance services, airlift flights, CAT scans, x-ray machines, blood labs, wipe downs after surgeries, cleaning personnel, counselors, dieticians, speech therapists, and I think you can see the bigger picture. They are all on the same team and are carefully choreographed as such. Schedules are made and held to the best of their abilities and psychology plays a very important role in how to address each and every single patient that comes through those doors seeking help. And many do arrive at all hours with injuries ranging from an irritating and swollen insect bite to lost limbs or severe head injuries. And the hospital takes them in regardless of color of skin, speech or any other factor. They need help.
But how do you thank them after you have been healed to live another day? The hospital is a place for those needing to be there, its not a hotel for the healthy. Once they see that you are good to go, then get up and pack the bags because more than a few start the delaying tactic for they relish the attention, but don’t think for two mimutes that they can’t see that game coming on. Other people who need help also need that bed you’ve come to enjoy, so make room for the sick and go home.
These men and women are no less human than you and me, and many of them have families, and lives outside of their shifts, but more often than not, they are drained from the events of the day, and would really like nothing more than to put their feet up and let the stress slip away. And then comes a beep and a longtone, and the on-call people leap to their feet and go back to help another injured soul.
Have you ever taken thought to the ambulance as it passes you by with its lights and siren cutting through the night? The driver moving as quickly as possible while in the back the second paramedic is working to stabilize the injured victim who is hurting from injuries and scared of what may be coming. The young paramedic also has a personal life that she needs to put aside to care for this person in front of her. Do you know what she has been through in her life that has brought her to this point in time? Do you know the reason for her becoming an EMT? Perhaps she has motion sickness and fights it as she looks after your immediate needs. Of course you don’t know and most of you would take no thought to the matter, but she is just as human as you are, just a little stronger in her constitution and fortitude than most of those with whom she grew up with. She and her partner work closely together to bring the injured one to the ER, and then you are there and they leave. But they have paperwork to fill out, medicines to replenish, an ambulance to refuel, to wash, to clean the interior as they prepare for the next unknown call. Pay them the respect they so richly deserve. It’s not always about you, the patient. There are many people working behind the scenes to get you the help you need, the proper care, and the correct medicines, and these medical professionals are worth their weight in gold. Without them, you would be heading for the rocks in a winter’s gale without a rudder.
So, the next time you find yourself in the ER, know this: there is a small unseen world beyond the closed curtain that you will never see, and they are doing all they can to give you another day. Give honor and respect to those whom it is due, and medical personnel richly deserve it, hands down.
Edward L Ordway