The Medic Dad Chronicles

The Bystander I've worked with a lot of different personalities in EMS over the years. Some became lifelong friends. Some taught me things I'll never forget. Some could run a call like nobody's business. And then there was The Bystander. The partner who was always on the scene but somehow never in the call. They weren't refusing to work. They weren't hiding. They were just... there. Watching. Waiting. Looking for the next instruction instead of the next task. Over the years, I realized The Bystander isn't defined by years on the job. I've seen it in brand-new EMTs who were afraid to make a mistake, and I've seen it in seasoned EMTs who should have known exactly what needed to happen next. They were on the "ROADS" program (Retired on Active Duty Service). Experience doesn't automatically create initiative. Every call was the same. We'd arrive on scene, and while I was assessing the patient, talking with the family, formulating a treatmen...

  T he Know-It-All I've worked with some incredibly intelligent people in EMS. People who could quote protocols from memory. People who knew the pharmacology of every medication we carried. People who understood anatomy and physiology better than most. Knowledge is important. But knowledge without experience can be dangerous. Years ago, I was assigned a paramedic student. Before they ever stepped onto my truck, I had already heard about them. Several medics warned me that they thought they knew everything. They had gone straight from EMT school into paramedic school without ever working as an EMT. When they climbed into the truck that morning, I told them something simple. "You're the lead medic today. I'm just here to observe. My EMT is your partner." Without hesitation, they smiled and said, "Sounds good." Our very first call was for an elderly woman who had fallen while taking her trash to the curb. She was sitting on the curb when we arrived. There w...

  The Clock Puncher I've worked with two kinds of clock punchers during my career. At first glance, they look exactly alike. They come to work, run their calls, and go home. Neither one seems particularly interested in much else. But if you look a little closer, they're two very different people. The first one is simply there for the paycheck. EMS isn't a calling to them—it's employment. They're not interested in becoming better. They're not interested in teaching. They're not interested in helping their partner. They're counting the hours until shift change. The patient is another call. The paperwork is another report. The shift is another paycheck. Then there's the second clock puncher. This one is harder to recognize because they weren't always that way. They used to be the one volunteering for overtime. They used to stay late to help clean the truck. They used to mentor new EMTs. They used to laugh around the station. They used to genuinely l...

The One You'd Want for Your Family Every EMS service has one. The person who still genuinely loves this job. Not because it's easy. Not because the pay is great. Not because they enjoy being awakened at three in the morning or missing holidays with their family. They love it because they love people. They're the person you'd want walking through your front door if your wife, your husband, your child, or your parents ever had to call 911. You know the one. They walk into every house like they're visiting someone's home, not entering another "scene." They don't rush past the family to get to the patient. They understand that everyone in that room is scared, not just the person lying in the bed. They kneel beside patients instead of standing over them. They speak to people instead of about them. They explain what's happening in a way that's easy to understand, and they somehow have a way of making a terrible day feel just a little less frighte...

The Paragod Early in my career, I worked with a medic who taught me something I'll never forget—not because of what they did clinically, but because of how they treated people.  This medic was smart. Really smart. They knew the protocols, the medicine, and how to run a call. If you had judged them strictly on their medical knowledge, you probably would have said they were an excellent paramedic. The problem wasn't their knowledge. The problem was what they thought that knowledge made them. Somewhere along the way, confidence became arrogance.  Their EMT partners were treated as though they didn't know anything. They weren't given opportunities to learn or grow because they were rarely allowed to do anything. If an EMT had an idea, it was often dismissed before it was even heard. Instead of teaching, they talked down to people. Instead of building confidence, they chipped away at it.  Eventually, people stopped wanting to work with them. It wasn't because they weren...

Can I Know That I'm Saved? This is probably the biggest question I've wrestled with over the years. Maybe you have too. I grew up in church. As a teenager, I went to church camp, went forward during an invitation, and was baptized. If you had asked me then, I would have told you I was a Christian. Years later, around late 2000, I got more involved in church and started reading the Bible more seriously. Looking back, I also realized something else. For a long time, I was really good at playing the part of a Christian.  I wasn't trying to fool anyone. In fact, I think I had fooled myself. My moral compass pointed toward church. If someone asked me to pray for them, I'd tell them I would. If I'm being honest, I usually didn't. My Bible reading often consisted of the daily verse that showed up in my email. I knew the right answers. I knew the Bible stories. I knew how Christians were supposed to act. But knowing about Jesus isn't the same as knowing Jesus. That...

 What Changes After You're Saved? One of the biggest misconceptions I had about becoming a Christian was that everything would instantly change. I thought maybe I'd never struggle with sin again. I'd never have a bad attitude. I'd never doubt. I'd never fail. Then I started reading the Bible.  What I found surprised me. The Bible never says that becoming a Christian makes us perfect. It says it makes us new. Paul wrote: "This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!" — 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NLT) When I first read that, I thought, "If that's true, why do I still struggle?" Part of the answer is that we have a very real enemy. The Bible tells us that Satan is real, and he doesn't stop attacking just because we've put our faith in Christ. In fact, one of his favorite weapons is doubt. Jesus described Satan this way: "The thief's purpose is to steal and kill and de...

  So... What Do I Do Now? Over the last few posts, we've talked about what gets us into heaven. We've talked about the fact that we don't have to clean ourselves up before coming to Jesus. We've talked about the fear that we've gone too far for God to forgive us. So that leaves one very important question. What do I do now? For a long time, I thought there had to be more to it. I thought maybe there was a checklist. Maybe I had to become a better person first. Maybe I had to quit every bad habit before God would accept me. But that's not what the Bible says. The apostle Paul wrote these words in Romans: "If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." — Romans 10:9 (NLT) That sounds almost too simple. But simple doesn't mean easy. The word "believe" in the Bible isn't just believing Jesus existed. I believe George Washington existed. I believe Abraham Lincoln ex...

Have I Gone Too Far? If I'm honest, I think this may be one of the saddest questions a person can ask.  "Have I gone too far?"  "Can God really forgive someone like me?" Maybe your past is filled with addiction. Maybe it's divorce. Maybe it's an affair. Maybe it's pornography. Maybe it's prison. Maybe it's years of anger. Maybe it's years of ignoring God. Maybe it's something you've never told another living person. Whatever it is, you wonder...  "Have I crossed a line that God won't forgive?" As I've been reading through the Gospels, I've noticed something that has given me a lot of hope. The people who thought they were too far gone... were often the very people Jesus walked toward. Think about the woman who had been caught in an affair. The people who brought her wanted to condemn her. The religious leaders were ready to stone her. Jesus wasn't. He didn't pretend her sin didn't matter. He didn...