Hakaras HaTov for MADA, Hatzolah, FireFighters

I saw this on an email list its Touching Moving & Important for us to internalize

A request to the public "What I Wish People Knew About MADA Hatzolah, EMS, Firefighters, Dispatchers, & Law Enforcement"

I wish you could know what it is like to search a burning bedroom for trapped children at 3 AM, flames rolling above your head, your palms and knees burning as you crawl, the floor sagging under your weight as the kitchen below you burns.

I wish you could comprehend a husband's horror at six in the morning as I check his wife of 40 years for a pulse and find none. I start CPR anyway, hoping to bring her back, knowing intuitively it is too late...but wanting her husband and family to know everything possible was done to try to save her life.

I wish you knew the unique smell of burning insulation, the taste of soot-filled mucus, the feeling of intense heat through your turnout gear, the sound of flames crackling, the eeriness of being able to see absolutely nothing in dense smoke-sensations that I've become too familiar with.

I wish you could read my mind as I respond to a building fire. 'Is this a false alarm or a working fire? How is the building constructed? What await me? Is anyone trapped?' Or to call, 'what is hazards wrong with the patient?Is it minor or life threatening? Is the caller really in distress, or is he waiting for us with a 2x4 or a gun?'

I wish you could be in the emergency room as a doctor pronounces dead the beautiful five-year old girl that I have been trying to save during the past25 minutes, who will never go on her first date or say the words, 'I love you Mommy' again.

I wish you could know the frustration I feel in the cab of the engine or unit, the driver with his foot pressing down hard on the pedal, my arm tugging again and again at the air horn chain... as you fail to yield the right-of-way at an intersection or in traffic. When you need us, however, your first comment upon our arrival will be, 'It took you forever to get here!'

I wish you could know my thoughts as I help extricate a girl of teenage years from the remains of her automobile. 'What if this was my daughter, sister, my girlfriend or a friend? What are her parents' reaction going to be when they open the door to find a police officer with hat in hand?'

I wish you could know how it feels to walk in the back door and greet my parents or family, not having the heart to tell them that I nearly did not come back from the last call.

I wish you could know how it feels dispatching officers, firefighters and EMT's out and when we call for them and our heart drops because nobody answers back, or to hear a bone chilling 911 call of a child or wife needing assistance.

I wish you could feel the hurt as people verbally, and sometimes physically, abuse us or belittle what I do, or as they express their attitudes of 'It will never happen to me.'
I wish you could realize the physical, emotional and mental drain, missed meals, lost sleep and forgone social activities, in addition to all of the tragedy my eyes have seen.

I wish you could know the brotherhood and self-satisfaction of helping to save a life or preserving someone's property, or being able to be there in time of crisis, or creating order from total chaos.

I wish you could understand what it feels like to have a little boy tugging at your arm and asking, 'Is Mommy okay?' and not even being able to look in his eyes without tears from your own and not knowing what to say...Or have to hold back a long time friend who watches his buddy having CPR per formed on him as you take him away in the Medic Unit. You know all along that he did not have his seat belt on, a sensation that I have become too familiar with.

Unless you have lived with this kind of life, you will never truly understand or appreciate who I am, we are, or what our job really means to us... I wish you could though.

KEEP SENDING THIS ON.

APPRECIATE AND SUPPORT OUR LOCAL MADA, POLICE, VOLUNTEER FIREFIGHTERS AND HATZOLAH IN OUR AREA

ONE DAY THEY MAY BE SAVING YOUR PROPERTY OR YOUR OWN LIFE.

WHEN YOU SEE THEM COMING WITH LIGHTS FLASHING, QUICKLY MOVE OUT OF THE WAY, TO THE RIGHT, THEN PRAY FOR THEM AS THEY PASS BY...

Have a safe day.