A Health Careers Scholarship Recipient’s Message

“Boop boop boop.” As a probationary volunteer member at the fire department, the dispatch tones still caused my heart to skip a beat followed by rapid acceleration as I listened for more information. “Specialty Unit requested.” With adrenaline rising knowing we had a hike ahead of us, I jumped into the back of the ambulance having a vague idea that a patient had fallen somewhere in the adjacent State Park and someone would meet us to guide us back to the patient.

As the medic driver raced down the narrow two lane highway, I bowed my head praying for safety and wisdom for the crew and protection for the patient as I always did when we dropped a call. The gates opened as we arrived at the property allowing our team to bump along the pitted pastures before reaching the river where a deputy in a gator waited to take the paramedic to the patient. Grabbing additional supplies and oxygen from the back, the ambulance driver and I began making our way to the patient wading through the river, avoiding letting cattle escape from behind the fence, and finally scrambling down the cliffside to the patient.

Quickly assessing the situation, I saw the patient shivering uncontrollably in the otherwise pleasant winter’s dusk, blood soaking the jacket behind his head. Looking up at his family and friends, anxious to recount what had happened as they gathered around me, I learned he had fallen about 40 feet in a climbing accident before landing head first on the unforgiving rocks below.

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Despite the obvious pain he felt, the patient tried to smile and politely answer our questions as our team worked together to stabilize him for transport back to the ambulance. The paramedic and I then worked in the back to establish IV access and check for additional injuries as the patient faded in and out of lucidity. Each time he regained partial cognizance, he asked, “Are you two Believers?” Without hesitation, we were able to answer that we were as it had only been that morning that the paramedic and I discovered the other was a Christian and talked about our respective beliefs. The firefighter who had been assigned to be the ambulance driver for the day was also a Christian and helped reassure the mother who sat up front before we dropped them off at the Emergency Department.

Back at the fire station a few months later, we got the unexpected call to come down to the front office. To our great surprise, we saw that same family had returned with the patient—now fully able to move and hold conversations. They relayed to us how all the doctors had told him it was a miracle that he survived the fall and furthermore had no neurocognitive deficits. I was then able to share with them the way God had provided a Christian team that day and how my own family had continued to pray for him each night unsure if he would beat the odds given the mechanism of injury. While continuing to serve others in medical school, I have often thought back to this incident as a reminder of God’s divine providence over all details, whether in the present or future, to “work [all things] together for good to those who love [Him]” (Romans 8:28). No matter the outcome, I can trust that God has a plan and is with me in each moment.

 

Mary Beth Amrine
MD Candidate ’22
Boston University School of Medicine

EMT-IV,
Franktown Fire Protection District Firefighter