In this section of Black Flies by Shannon Burke the job and mental aspect effects Rutkovsky mentally. One hot summer day the men are called to help a mother that is giving birth to a "still born" baby, this woman is a crack addict, takes methodome, is HIV positive, and is giving birth to her baby two months early. When they men get there the baby is born and Rutkovsky says the baby is dead, while he is dealing with the baby Ollie is talking to the mother. The baby is taken down to the ambulance where another paramedic determines that "the dead baby is breathing" (117). Soon later Rutkovsky is fired, all the men are questioned but Ollie says he saw nothing and he was talking to the mom the whole time. The job began to get to Rutkovsky and ultimately altered his thinking. He always wanted the patient to live and to be comfortable but at this moment he didn't want the baby to have to live in that sort of environment. Although he had a "valid" reason for his actions this is extremely out of character for him, and really shows how the job has effected him immensely. A few weeks later the paramedics get a call to help a man in a park that had shot himself, it was Rutkovsky. The fact that he didn't have his job anymore and the things he had seen changed him and his view on life completely. He wasn't able to deal with all the tragic things he had seen so he killed himself. His coworkers thought that the way he killed himself in a "joking" way, he shot himself in a way that would ruin his face, and in a park that he knew his friends would respond too. The job of being a paramedic took a huge toll on Rutkovsky's and every other mans life as well. I really hope that this job doesn't do the same for Ollie. I think that the job that these men are doing is extremely honorable and selfless. They are willing to give up everything to help people and a community that they aren't affiliated with at all. This job takes a huge toll on theses men and women's lives, and they aren't commended enough for the amazing work that they do. The things that they experience are tragic and no one should ever have to see that but they deal with it with care and sophistication.
Burke, Shannon. Black Flies. New York: Soft Skull P, 2008.*Black Flies should be underlined
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Rutkovsky died very honorably. Even though he commited suicide and that means that he gave up on life, he saved many other's lives. I agree that all of these paramedics basically give up their lives to helping people. Their brains are very affected by the severeties of their job. This book proves the nobleness of the job, and shows that Rutkovsky and Ollie are good men.
I actually just got done watching Grey's Anatomy, and usually I looked past the paramedics, but now that I think about it, they are the people who deal with traumas first. It must be incredibly scarring and nightmarish to have your profession be dealing with traumas. Suicide seems a bit extreme at first, but after thinking about it, I can kind of grasp how he may have felt that suicide was in order. Paramedics should be honored and appreciated more than they are, and I hope Ollie doesn't face the same fate!
Post a Comment