Because someone out there needs something...

I got a MySpace friend request from a paramedic the other day… After I approved his friend request, I told him what I thought about paramedics…

I told him about buggy #41 – my buggy – Chicago Fire Department ambulance #41. I told him that 11 years ago, right around this time of year, was pretty much the beginning of the chain of events that lead to what I have now.

It was around 10pm and I was doing my chest physical therapy – pounding and coughing – I felt a pop, then some gurgling. Laura looked at me and asked me if I was OK – I shook my head “no”… She asked me if she should call 911 – I shook my head “yes”… That’s was about all I remember until I saw two Chicago Fire Department paramedics hovering over me holding an oxygen mask to my face…

I’d had a bad hemoptysis, a bleed in my lungs, and coughed up about a cup of blood onto the carpet. I can’t imagine what Laura felt like – she said I looked like a Smurf as she held me up in a sitting position and hollered at me to stay alive… She spoke with the 911 dispatch operator and followed her instructions until the paramedics arrived…

That was then. Now – I can see the fire station where buggy #41 is parked from my window in my office. Whenever I see it pass on the street, I stand a little taller – I almost want to salute. I guess I usually do in my heart…

The paramedic from MySpace was just another reminder to me of all the heroes in our lives… He worked as a paramedic in Maryland, then in the Chicago area. Then he took an interest in organ donation and became an organ procurement coordinator for Wisconsin Donor Network. Now he’s a paramedic again, but he’s taken it to the skies – he works as a flight paramedic in Indiana.

Everyone who knows anything about me knows that Kari is my hero – she and her family are my heroes… I think of them throughout the day, every day I breathe… And I think of her precious friends too… But I think of these people as well – our paramedics, flight crews, OPO people, procurement nurses, medical professionals – they invest their effort and their precious time – and often enough they put their lives on the line for us…

I “met” this paramedic because he was visiting Bill Serra’s MySpace tribute page. He stumbled across the picture of me holding Kari’s picture. He’s from the Chicago area and recognized the Hancock in the background of our picture.

The last case he did as a procurement coordinator in Wisconsin was on June 4, 2007. It involved procuring a heart, liver, kidneys and… lungs. The lungs were allocated to University of Michigan… by him.  He rotated off after working 24 hours, and went home and went to sleep… His wife woke him a few hours later and told him there had been a plane crash in Lake Michigan and she thought it was a medical team…

Like my buddy Scott at IamAreYou did yesterday – I’d like to take a moment to remember six people who lost their lives a year ago yesterday, while trying to save another life… I posted about them a year ago. I’d like to honor and remember them… They are Dr. David Ashburn, Richard Chenault II, Rick Lapensee, Dr. Martin Spoor, Dennis Hoyes & Bill Serra. You can see their bios on the Umich site here…

And I’d like to honor the people who show up on a phone call, no matter the time of day or night, sometimes pulling 24-hour shifts – because someone out there needs something…