![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Jan. 31st, 2004 09:32 amHoly sweet mother of god.
I have some medical training. I've mostly used it to treat blisters, wrap ankles and force fluids on the dehydrated. But really, I've been lucky; I've only had to really use my training once. And in retrospect, it wasn't that bad, because the person I was treating couldn't feel what had happened.
Last night, (holy cow, I'm still shaking) someone dislocated their shoulder in front of me. I'm trained to fix that, but only under certain circumstances. We weren't in those circumstances. So I sat last night, for a little more than half an hour, while we drove to the emergency room with someone crying in pain that I could fix but didn't.
Legally, I did the right thing. Morally, I still did the right thing, if only because the hospital could perscribe Vicodin when they saw the injury.
I still feel sick. I knew dealing with protocols was going to be stupid and ugly, but I could have quite happily gone the rest of my life without knowing how stupid and ugly. I'm not sure if I should be happy that I acted as I've been trained to act, or if I should be ashamed that I took a second to think about legality. I didn't help someone who was in serious pain. I feel like I let him down.
I have some medical training. I've mostly used it to treat blisters, wrap ankles and force fluids on the dehydrated. But really, I've been lucky; I've only had to really use my training once. And in retrospect, it wasn't that bad, because the person I was treating couldn't feel what had happened.
Last night, (holy cow, I'm still shaking) someone dislocated their shoulder in front of me. I'm trained to fix that, but only under certain circumstances. We weren't in those circumstances. So I sat last night, for a little more than half an hour, while we drove to the emergency room with someone crying in pain that I could fix but didn't.
Legally, I did the right thing. Morally, I still did the right thing, if only because the hospital could perscribe Vicodin when they saw the injury.
I still feel sick. I knew dealing with protocols was going to be stupid and ugly, but I could have quite happily gone the rest of my life without knowing how stupid and ugly. I'm not sure if I should be happy that I acted as I've been trained to act, or if I should be ashamed that I took a second to think about legality. I didn't help someone who was in serious pain. I feel like I let him down.
