"Now They Will Tremble Again - At The Sound Of Our Silence."

There are some things in my job that I have never considered. I'm still relatively new to the profession and know that I have a lot to learn but there are certain things that I'm not sure most of us pick up on.

We worked a full arrest a while back. It was the kind of call where you walk in and look at the guy and know that he is dead. I thought that there was going to be some lividity or rigor but no, there wasn't. As we worked on the frail old body, my captain started talking to the family preparing them for the worst. Unfortunately, there was nothing that we could do. He had been down for too long.

Afterward, back at the station, we talked about the call. We went over the things that we did and tried to find things that we could improve upon for the next time. During our discussion, my captain brought up an interesting point. While working a code, there's quite a bit of noise. The Autopulse rhythmically thumping away on the chest. The sound of the BVM being squeezed and refilling with precious oxygen. The sound of the defibrillator charging and shocking the victim. The body itself making noises (I'll spare you the details here but if you want to know send me an email). On top of all the ambient noise you have medics asking for medications, talking about H's and T's, reporting sugar levels, clearing people away from the body prior to a shock. There's a lot of noise. This didn't surprise me. What did is when my captain pointed out that when we stop resuscitation efforts, all the noises, all the talking, comes to a very abrupt stop. He explained that the silence can be overwhelming for the families.

Just food for thought.

Bonus points for naming the movie the title of this post is quoting.