EMTs

I cannot imagine the scene that the EMTs came upon that cold morning in February. They had to cut the roof off of our Honda Civic in order to get Richard out and even then, it took a couple of hours.  He had bones exposed and he was talking.  I don't know what he said.  I probably don't want to know.

After I went back to work, the paramedics came to our school for the rocket club's rocket launch.  (At least I think that is why they were there.) Wendy was subbing at the school that day and we were standing there talking and discussing the fact that they might be the same paramedics that helped Richard at the scene of his accident.  We went to talk to them, which is highly unusual for me because I really have a hard time just going up to people and starting a conversation, especially when they might be the same people that saved my husband's life.  We did talk to them and thank them for all of their assistance to him.  That is really all I remember about the encounter.

When Richard's parents came to town to care for him after school started for the 2008-09 school year, Richard talked his father into taking him to the police station and talking to them there.  He was able to get the pictures from the scene of the accident, which we never thought we would see.  I am grateful that we got them on many different levels.

Then, several years later our friend Melissa, who is an EMT was taking continuing education classes and the teacher was talking about a specific accident. Melissa immediately recognized the description as Richard's accident so she went to him and talked to him.  Several months later, we were in town visiting and Richard wanted to meet him.  He wanted to meet Richard as well so the two of them got together.  This was in about 2014. The EMT thought that Richard died, so he was really surprised when Melissa told him that he had survived.  When we talked to him, he said that he had never had anyone with that much physical trauma that didn't die.  He also said that he had seen a lot of people with a lot less trauma die at the scene.  He seemed truly touched, and grateful for Richard making contact with him.  They had a good conversation, which I recorded on my phone and have saved on my computer.

I am grateful for this EMT as well as the others who worked so hard to save the life of my husband on that very cold February morning.  Words do not do it justice.