Stop and think for a few moments. Have you ever jumped into something without having all the facts? Most people have at one time or another done just that. Here is one example from my own life.
It was a hot summer day in Florida, the ambulance I was working in was dispatched to a vehicle accident. We raced to the scene where there wer 2 fire trucks and 3 rescue vehicles already there. People in uniforms were running around everywhere. I figured it must really be bad. I did notice that everyone was busy grabbing equipment and there wasn’t anyone with the patients. Someone hollered at me that the doors were jammed. The Jaws of Life and Metal Saws were being pulled out and hooked up. I took off for the vehicle and its occupants carrying my jumpkit, oxygen, and cardiac monitor. My partner went to the drivers side, I went to the passenger side. An older male was slumped over the steering wheel on my partner’s side, an older female was on the passenger side. She was conscious and alert, and in a great deal of pain. Fortunately, the windows were down and I could start to work on her right away. I got busy (these things happen in a hurry). Once I saw the damage to her leg, which I couldn’t reach through the window, without thinking, I grabbed the door handle and opened the door to start to stabilize the broken leg.
Of a sudden, there was a great hush to all of the noise that had been going on. I looked up and my partner was staring at me. He looked at the door he was trying to work through, stepped back and opened it. We now had full and complete access to the patients and other emergency responders had a lot of equipment to put up.
Talking about it later we found that a ‘good samaritan’ had stopped shortly before the fire and rescue personnel. He stood by the car yelling at them that the doors were jammed. There first thought, of course, was that they needed to have a way to get access to the patients, so they started getting equipment ready to tear the car apart and get them out. Unfortunately, because they had not checked for themselves, this wasn’t necessary.
It was an emergency situation, and someone gave some bad information that a lot of other people reacted to. Fortunately, there were only moments lost, but the situation could have been worse. Perhaps it was only dumb luck that caused me to try the door.
How this relates to the current issue of health care reform is that:
- We do have an emergency situation. Things are only going to get worse if something doesn’t happen pretty quickly.
- Mis-information is as thick as mosquitos in a swamp.
- People are trying to respond in an urgent manner that sometimes keeps them from checking what they have been told or looking for new facts to address.
- The outcome? That will depend upon how many people try the door by accident and how quickly.
Please take the time to contact your elected officials and ask them for the facts. Speak with your own doctors and see what they have to say. Read the newspapers, watch a variety of news shows on TV so that you are not getting only one opinion. Stop, for just a moment, and ask what is best for our Country.
