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Ive been  thinking the past couple of days about three young boys that have been killed in MVA's recently, two were in a wreck together and one got hit on his dirtbike while crossing the road. I knew these guys very well, i grew up with them, and went to school together. The night the two boys got killed our dept was called for mutal aid to assist with extracation. We are the only dept that has extrication in the area so we have to cover several districts for that. The night the wreck occured i was working and couldnt go, i didnt find out till the next morning that somebody had died much less the names. Luckily every fatality ive ever been on has been people i didnt know so it didnt affect me, ive seen dead people before and loaded them, but i just dont know how it would be to put someone i knew in a bag. My question to you is have you ever went to a call where either a family member or a really close friend had passed on in a wreck or fire, or any type of call. How did you handle it? Did you just have to walk away? Or did you stay there and help load them? Im not trying to bring up bad memories or anything like that i am asking this to help me and other Public service workers in the same situation. I believe in getting the job done, but we arent robots we do have feelings and emotions and i think it would be really tough to just stay there like that, when your upset trying to do the job we do you can get somebody hurt or worse.

Yhis also brings me back to a story i "heard" dont know if its true or not. There was a state trooper that got dispatched to a wreck he got there and it was a school bus from the school his son went to, they say it was bad with a few fatalities. The trooper walked up to the bus found his son, which had already passed on picked him up and laid him in the back seat of his patrol car and went back and started pulling more kids from the wreckage. If this is true how could somebody be that programmed for it not to bother them when they pick up their own son that had passed? Any input would be greatly appreciated? Thanks

Leatherhead you are right we are not robots and we have emotions.  But I think sometimes we put our emotions aside to do the "job" we have to do.  I dont know about the story you heard but if it is even partially true, again maybe the trooper had a job to do was the only one on scene and put his child in the car to protect his heart and help those that he could.  Dont know if I could do it but some can.

Hang in there we all go thru this but we have each other on here

It's bad that we have to deal with it all the time.I know here(Onslow Co.,N.C.)That CISM is very well used.Unforunately It has been used many times these past couple of years.But it's a fantasice tool.It is there for all that need it.Talk to your Chief.He should have the contacts that are need to handle it. If not.We (Onslow) have two trained teams.And plenty of peer trained personal.

Drop me a e-mail if you need anymore assistance. I am trained at the peer level,and group level.   JMETRO@ec.rr.com