There have been a number of incidents that I have experienced as a volunteer fireman that feel to be slightly out of the ordinary.  As a volunteer in a very small town, I am expected to be the “first responder” at all sorts of medical aid calls, but have very little training concerning what to do once I get there.  I am far from being a trained medical responder, but still have to fill that role.  For the first few years, automobile accident calls with “injuries” terrified.  As I was getting into my protective clothes at home, and then driving to the fire house, I would think of what I might be facing.  Knowing that I had almost no training, I would think about what it was going to be like to be depended upon to do the right thing to help someone, but not know what to do. I was also afraid that it would be so ugly, and I would be so frightened, that I would unable to function.  My fear was so great that on more than one occasion I found that my car had stopped in the middle of the road and it was almost impossible to make myself continue to the firehouse. 

After a few years of being filled with mind numbing fear each time I heard my portable monitor go “beep beep beep beep beep” for a call, I had a realization that my responsibility wasn’t as great as I had imagined.  After encountering a couple of dead people on these calls, it dawned on me that in almost all cases people would either be dead, or they would not be dead.  If they are dead, then it doesn’t matter any longer.  We take so long to respond (about 6-10 minutes), that they aren’t likely to become dead during the few minutes between when I show up and when an ambulance arrives at the scene.  The realization that I don’t normally have to save lives was a great relief.  My job is to make the scene safe (put out fires, turn off engines, control traffic, etc), help get the injured people out of the vehicles and ready to be put into an ambulance, administer first aid if needed, and help people feel better in their fear and pain.  I can do all of these things.  If someone dies, I feel sorrow – but there isn’t much that I can do about that.

At about the same time that I came to the realization that we don’t save lives, it also became obvious that my main “medical” contribution has to do with helping people with their fear and suffering, and maybe some of the pain.  Pain is hard to do something about because it has to do with nerve impulses.  Suffering, however, seems to be a choice.  I have noticed that a person can be in great pain, but not be suffering if they are in the right mind.  My job is to help them get into that right mind.  I have found that I can help by just being there, being attentive, and touching them.  When I touch a person in these situations, I get the same kind of feeling that I do when I am “healing” someone.  I feel the warmth and feeling of “love” flowing through my body and hands into them.  I don’t tell the fireman, or anyone at the scene, what I am doing – but I feel that I am doing something important.

One example that comes to mind is a late night call that we got to a house trailer where a person was in immense pain because of gall stones.  This wasn’t an accident, but it was similar because it involved so much pain.  When we got there the man was screaming and hollering because of the pain, and was losing his control.  The other firemen just stood and watched, not knowing what to do.  I knelt down beside the patient and held his hand.  I could feel the warmth flowing to him, and within a couple of seconds he quieted down.  I could feel his muscles and everything just kind of relaxing; he could even come up with a bit of a smile and could talk to us. It was obvious to me that my presence was a great soothing thing for him.  Finally the ambulance came and he was able to walk slowly to the ambulance where they administered some drugs that actually helped the pain, rather then just his reaction to it.

In another case we showed up in the middle of a rainy night to an accident where a car had rolled over and the passenger’s arm was ripped off at his shoulder.  My first job was to wade in a nearby creek until I found the missing arm!  I handed the arm over to one of the other firemen, and went to see what I could do to help.  I first went to the side of the person missing the arm, and found that he was close to a state of shock.  That means he was quiet, but in a very dangerous situation.  I held his hand for a few minutes, and the danger seemed to pass.  I then turned my attention to the driver, who was his girl friend. She was really freaking out, she was just going nuts crying, shouting, sobbing while I could see that she was going into shock.  I went up to her and captured her in a big bear hug, wrapping myself around her as much as I could, and just stood there with her for a long time.  She slowly stopped sobbing and shaking, and I could finally feel her body relax.  We just continued to stand in the middle of the road, gently swaying back and forth until she was able to be on her own again.

A couple of months ago we were called out to an accident between a pickup truck and a small sedan.  The lady in the sedan was trapped, and hurt badly.  She clearly had broken legs, and maybe a broken arm.  We used the Jaws of Life and cut her free, sliding her out on a backboard where we could prepare her for transport.  During this time she was screaming at the top of her lungs.  She was by far the noisiest patient that I ever experienced.  When we got her laying down on the ground, her arms slipped and I saw both of her arms flex like a couple of pieces of rubber tubing, they bent in all the wrong places.  When that happened she REALLY let out a holler.  I held on to her hands to keep her arms from flopping about again while others prepared splints, got her connected to the back board, etc.  I found that the only thing that I could do was pour my love through her hands.  She finally became quiet and seemed to relax.  I don’t know if my holding her hands helped, but it at least gave me something to do.

There are many more instances like these where a person was in fear, or in great pain, where my touching them and being there seemed to help.  I think that the presence and touch of another human at those times of need helps immensely.  It might well be that someone just being there is all that was needed. However, it feels to me that there is something more going on, it feels to me like there is loving energy being transferred through my body and into the other person.  It feels wonderful to me, so I look forward to being able to help.  It seems to feel wonderful to them too, but my guess is that they don’t ever think back upon it as anything special. 

I wonder what is going on during these kinds of events.  One thought it is that the presence of a caring person is enough to calm fears and reduce pain.  Another idea is that maybe there is actually some kind of “universal energy” that we can sometimes tap into.  If that is the case, this energy is not obvious or observable by currently available scientific measurements or tests.  From the point of view of a scientist, I have to believe that if anything is actually happening it must be related to mental changes caused with the caring attention of another person.  However, from my experiences of being personally involved, I can state that it feels like there is more than that; it feels like an outside source of energy is involved.  Whatever the truth is, I am convinced that we all have the ability within us to offer great assistance to those in mental or physical pain.  If we can find a way to relax into the drama of the situation we can do much to help reduce another person’s fear and pain in their moments of need.