Avoiding Personal Disaster

It is inevitable that the human body eventually fails to work properly. Our circulatory system becomes less and less efficient with age, our muscles do not recover as quickly, and our bones and cartilage become less resilient. Aging is not a happy prospect whenever it occurs. The end results range from minor aches and pains to arthritic degeneration and often times permanent disability.

For most, this is part of the natural aging process, which usually begins in late middle age and extends into to old-old age. For those of us who work on an ambulance, it often comes prematurely. Frankly, career EMTs have some residual musculoskeletal defect, no matter how careful one is with lifting, turning, bending or carrying.

In many other occupational specialties, there are strict regulations for body mechanics, but for ambulance crews, we cannot pull out a union card, quote an OSHA regulation, and refuse to participate in our primary job function, which is to transport the injured. In EMS, danger and hazards are not an option.

Much has been written over the years on kinesiology, but no matter how hard we try, we injure ourselves, accidentally drop a patient, and help to give our partner a disk herniation. If we are lucky, we only hurt ourselves. The bottom line is the 400-pound patient in Acute Pulmonary Edema has to be carried down five flights of stairs and although television tells us otherwise, there is not always a company of firefighters, police officers and other ambulance crews at our immediate disposal.

The Journey to Recovery

Treatment options range from eating ibuprofen as if they are gumdrops to narcotics, chiropractic, acupuncture, physical therapy, and surgery. The result is always the same. One day we can no longer work on an ambulance.

Unless you are lucky to be in a system that has line of duty pensions or immediate retirement pay after a short career, you must seek other employment. Moreover, for volunteers, there is no one ready to hand you a check for breaking your back on your own time. It is like a punishment for serving your community. After all, you volunteered. How dare you ask us to help you now that you need it!

Anyone that has ever collected Workers Compensation or Disability benefits can tell you that if you are lucky enough to receive the maximum amount it is nowhere near the salary that you made at your job. It usually ranges from zero to fifty percent of you base salary. Is there anyone who can survive on nothing or even fifty percent of their former paycheck? If you are like most of us, your present salary is the tip of the iceberg. That is why we have a second part-time job and sometimes a third per-diem job. Like most medics and EMTs, a fourth job teaching BLS or ACLS is not unusual.

Another issue is that you do not instantly get a paycheck once injured on the job. By the time the first Worker's Comp check arrives, your bank is ready to foreclose on your house or your landlord has already given you the boot. There are some people in EMS who have learned to sock away a few months pay in case of an emergency, but even though we are in the emergency business, most of us do not know how to handle a financial crisis. After all, we are indestructible and our bodies will never betray us.

If you are lucky enough, when the big check finally arrives in your mailbox, you will be surprised to find that it is not even enough to pay last month's bills let alone give you any real relief. Armed with the knowledge of imminent financial demise, the solution is often to lie to the insurance doctor, tell your employer that you feel fine, take a hand full of NSAIDS, put on a back brace and pray really hard that your next month worth of patients will all be under fifty pounds.