Why I'm Pissed Right Now

Not much phases Nurse Hottie (NH) in the medical world. I learned very early on that when someone has been seriously injured instead of thinking "oh, that poor person" (which is my instinct) his first reaction is "cool". When we first met he was an EMT, and I was very confused by this behavior. The thing is, he wasn't the only one. Everyone on his crew hoped it would be "a good call" whenever the siren went off indicating that they were being called out. I guess I finally understood it best when one of his cohorts told me that while they don't wish bad things on people, they wished they were the ones to respond when bad things happened to people. Okay, maybe I didn't understand it per se, but at least I stopped thinking they were a bunch of cold hearted bastards.

There is one thing though that NH cannot handle. And that is when a child has been injured. This is not to say he can't perform his job in that critical moment, but afterwards these are the patients that he is affect him emotionally. He came home from work this morning very, very angry. Because last night some idiot of a mother decided to drive home, after drinking, with her 2 and 5 yr olds sitting in booster seats. Without seatbelts. Fucking idiot. They got into an accident, and now the 5 yr old is in serious trouble. The child started seizing in the hospital (which indicates head trauma). We are have a small community hospital, so the child was medflighted out to Boston Children's Hospital. I'm sitting here seething just thinking about it. Because of course, the mother is fine. Or not. Right now I'm sure she's suffering emotionally, and I have to say with complete honesty - good. I'm praying/thinking/hoping that her child makes it through this. But, as bad as it sounds, I have zero sympathy for her right now.

From a legal standpoint - in case you're wondering, the paramedic, nurse, and doctor all filled out "possible neglect/child abuse" forms on this parent. The system investigates from here...