How to stay in control of your emotions in the presence of severe trauma.

Sometimes when we are forced to drive past a wreck, or see a body bag laying along side the edge of the highway from an accident, your immediate reaction is to feel compassion. It's a natural emotion, and that's what makes us human. I don't know if there really is one way to control your emotions in the presence of human destruction, or severe trauma to a human body. However, what I do know is, how to suck-up that initial shock and awe emotion inside you, suppress it for later, and complete the needed task at hand.

Everybody handles a bad situation differently. Some people are completely untethered by a decaying corpse, or by recently, discovered, body parts. Then there are people like me, who are bothered by an event such as this, and need a little practice help before I want to stumble upon something like this. None of us ever know, when it will be our turn to stop at a wreck where some young teenager, has wrapped his car around a pole. We never can say, when we step out to go hunting on the first day of deer season, and discover the humans remains of a little girl, half naked and slightly decomposed, that was our hope and dream plan. I don't think any of us, would want stumble across a sight such as the one I just described, on any day of deer season. Still though, there are terrible people in this world, who like to do terrible things. It is and always has been a fact of life, whether we like it or not. Some of us are more sooner than later, bound to come across a scene like that. What would you do? I don't hunt or fish. I don't like the woods. But how many of you do? So again I'll ask the question, what would you do? I'll tell you what you might do, based off my own experience of finding a dead body. I screamed, I cried, I quickly called 9-11, and my father vomited.

There is a misconception out there that medical care workers are like robots. That once you've seen a body with it's chest cracked opened, head half-way blown off, or limbs ripped off in a tractor accident..., you become "used" to it. Well it is true that we become somewhat immune from feeling grossed out by the ghastly scene of this person. You had best believe it that those images, of that mangled body, don't escape our thoughts easily. Anymore than they escape yours. A mangled body effects everybody it comes across. Nobody forgets it, especially not the trauma team who lived it, fix it, or tried and failed at it. Moreover, how do we work through this, is quite simple really; we focus. We focus on the task at hand. Every medical worker, homicide police detective, firemen, etc., will tell you that the first thing they do is to focus on the solutions, to whatever the task at hand is that day.

I am a Surgical Technologist, and we are problem-solvers, who love to piece a good, hard, puzzle back together. Unfortunately, our puzzles are usually human bodies, which takes fast thinking on our part, and usually quick, precise, plan of attack. Whether that plan of attack is right or wrong. What I mean by this is; when those policemen and firemen ran up those stairs on 9-11, knowing full well that the Twin tower buildings were about to collapse..., was it the right or wrong plan of attack? That's what I mean by making a precise decision, and following it through right or wrong. In an emergency situation it is all you can do. Remember that,... because so many people get wrapped up in the things they "didn't do," or the things they "should've done," that they miss the real point. Which is, they just changed their life, and the life of another in a very dramatic way. Know that if you were to have done nothing, is far much worse, than doing something even though it may have failed. At least you tried. In the real world, that is all we can ask of you, and that is all that's really expected of you.

• First check for a pulse. This is going to tell you two things, is that person alive and will I need to administer CPR. If they are not alive, call 9-11 immediately. Most police or emergency agencies are equipped with a GPS tracking system if you have no clue where you are, or what street your on. Better yet, if you have a cell phone, they can find you through your cell phone, so make sure to leave it on while they case down your GPS signal.
• If you see any large, deep, gashes; take off your belt, your bra, or rip off your shirt sleeve, and tied that piece of garment right above the wound, or around the gashed or severed limb. Use a stick to help you tighten the garment around the wound, if you don't have any personal strength of your own to do it. If the wound happens to be an open gash of the abdominal cavity, packed the wound as best you can, and most importantly keep the victim's hands out of their own stomach wound. Too many times these victims fumble around in that body cavity trying to figure out what just happened, only to tear their intestinal tract, and died a horrible death later because bacteria escaped out their colon, and leaked all over their pancreas or liver. So many major organs are right there either just above and below our stomach; that a victim's own hands, can be their own worse nightmare. Keep their hands back, tied above their heads if you have too.
• Remember, think quick, think fast, focus, focus, focus, and get that bleeding stopped! If they have severed a major artery or vein, as gently as you can, stick your finger just inside the wound to try to plug the hole. It does not take the body long to bleed out, you've got about three minutes to come to terms with what you're dealing with, making a decision to save this person life, and thus sticking your finger in the wound to plug-up the artery or vein.
• It is okay to cry during any of this. If you are not use to this, if you're scared, if you're not sure what to do- if crying gets you focused, then cry. If yelling gets you focus, then yell! I take a deep breath, say to myself, "Here we go, be strong.", and off I go. I don't think twice about it. I view every patient of mine, as if it were me laying there in their place. When you realize that that could be or will be you some day, you cannot imagine how fast it seems, you find the energy to mustard up some courage. Do what it takes for you to focus.