First of many.

The day started off slow with calls slowly trickling in one after the other.
We all sat on station trying to wake each other up with horror stories, hilarious patients and odd injuries. I was really beginning to get a feel of what the rest of my life was going to look like. Putting on a uniform every day, starting work before the sun and the rest of the city was awake, living my life in the sounds of sirens and the flashing of lights. I can deffinately see myself doing this forever, I thought to myself, enjoying every second of my shift.
The siren went off.
"City one you have a priority one heading towards Moonshine Road, code 9."
Code 9 slowly rattled through my head, down my neck and into my chest. My heart started racing. I knew what a code 9 was after my first ever encounter with a dead person. We were being called to someone in a cardiac arrest. I climbed into the ambo with my heart in my throat as we sped through the traffic.

As we pulled into the carpark of the office building, a lady came racing out to us. "She's stopped breathing! Oh god she's stopped breathing!!" She screamed through the open ambulance window. I instantly inhaled her panick, unable to keep my heart from beating faster still, I could feel my hands getting clammy as I climbed out the back doors, defib and oxygen bottle grasped tightly in my little gloved hands. I probably look alot more professional than what I feel right now, as I shook my head and plastered what I hoped was a knowledgable look on my face, that kind that said yeaaaaaah I turn up and saved dead people all the time, you have nothing to worry about!! I was hoping this would be another one of the calls we'd been going to, where everything had been made to sound alot worse than what it was. The lady followed us inside, she was visibly shaken and very upset and she pressed for the fourth floor. We stood quietly, apart from the tinkling elevator music, which I found oddly calming, as we slowly rode to the elevator to where we were needed. When the doors opened, it was chaos.

The office workers lined the halls outside the elevator, they all pointed us in the same direction with the same scared look on their faces. Down the hall I could hear someone yelling, "1,2,3,4..." We rounded the corner. I swear to god I will never forget how completely and utterly terrified I was. This call hadn't been exaggerated, this lady really was dying and I was one of the people here to help save her. She lay on the floor, flat on her back, totally unaware of the immediate peril her life was in, totally unaware of everything. One of her co-workers was doing chest compressions and her entire body bounced with every rib breaking pump as he forced the blood around her veins. Upon seeing us, he immediately stopped. "Keep going!!!" We all yelled, streweing gear all about the man as we prepared to take over. The paramedic moved into position alongside the woman and continued CPR. I knew from the scenario training I'd done on a resus scene what gear was needed first and where. I got to work connecting the bag mask to the oxygen cylinder, connecting the electro pads to the defib and placing them on the lady's exposed chest as the paramedic deftly cut away her clothing. "26, 27, 28, 29, 30", said the paramedic doing who'd taken over compressions.

Up until that exact moment I'd always worried that when the push came to shove everything I'd ever been taught would simply be lost in the complexity of the situation. It was something I spent hour upon hour stressing over before every single duty, while treating every patient who had the potential to deteriorate, while writing down every vital peice of information I heard.
I picked up the mask, tilting the womans head back to open her air ways before placing the mask fully over her mouth and nose, securing the mask tightly to her face to create a seal with one hand and squeezed the bag with the other. Her chest gently rose and then fell, like it should have been doing on its own. I squeezed the bag a second time. Her chest rose and fell again. I could have high fived myself right then and there. I could have high fived every single person in that room, gone to the pub and then bought them all a round of drinks. F*** yeah Fly, you did it!!! I thought triumphantly to myself as the compressions continued, you should never have doubted yourself! You were MADE to do this! You were made to breathe for other people!!
"Fly", panted the paramedic, "you need to take over compressions for me."
Oh f***...this is an entirely different kettle of fish, you can't do this.

I watched her chest rise and fall with the first squeeze of the bag and locked my hands into my CPR position, placing them above her chest ready to place them. My mind was racing, I could hear my instructor in my mind, repeating to me the correct technique for effective CPR. Her chest went up, and I watched, almost in slow motion, as it slowly deflated back down. Then it was my time to shine. Bang, my hands found their place on her chest as if drawn there by a magnet and without even needing to think my arms began pumping away ryhtmically, one blood pumping compression after the other. One of the paramedics charged the defib, "stand clear!" She called before administering a shock. The womans entire body jolted, exactly the way it should when a massive vault of electricity is suddenly sent through it. I looked at the screen, VT still made it's waves right across the screen. I continued CPR. After two more rounds the medic called out again, "stand clear!" Two shocks were sent through her this time, I did another round of CPR and then we prepared to shock again. It felt as though we had only been working on her for a few seconds, in reality it was more like 20 minutes. "Stand clear", said the medic, "final shock."

It was like watching the life literally being shocked back into her. She took a massive, deep moaning breath and began gurgling as vomit filled her throat. Over the noise of the suction machine as the other medic cleared her airway the first medic analyzed the screen. "We have ROSC." ROSC!!!!! I knew what ROSC was!!! It was something all rookies dreamed of. The stuff my fantasies were made of, restarting someones heart, giving them back their live, giving them back to their families and loved ones. We got ROSC!!!! Back up was radioed for in the form of firefighters and their Stokes basket to assist in extricating our patient to our rig, parked on a crooked angle with it's lights still flashing in the carpark. The lady was not of small size and was very heavy, a dead weight. It took four of the fire fighters and 2 of the paramedics to carry her down the four flights of stairs. I was left to carry out all the gear and clean up the medical mess we'd created in our attempts to save this ladies life. It was then that I was aware of just how many people had watched someone die and then come back to life. Had watched us bring her back to life. They all stood ashen faced, clutching tightly onto each other in fright. A few of them had tears streaming down their faces, their mouths open in shock. I hadn't even noticed an audience...as far as I was concerened until then there had only been four people in that room. Three medics and our critically ill patient. Everything else had been blocked out as if a curtain had been drawn right around us.

I picked up the last peices of waste, an unsuccessful ET tube, needle covers from the IV starters, toppers off saline bags and flushes, the pad covers for the defib electrodes and stood to quietly leave. A lady walked up to me, her eyes red, her hands shaking. "Thank you so much." She sobbed to me through a quivering voice. "You ladies did an amazing job."
We really did.
That lady survived her heart attack which lead to her arrest. And now I have a part in the rest of her life. The first of many people who will be walking and talking because of me.