An interesting read on Lithub by Maya Alexandri about being an EMT during covid.
Two men, friends of the patient, were hanging back by the entryway to the apartment building, remote witnesses to the proceedings. I couldn’t tell if they were frightened, overwhelmed, or just trying to stay out of the way
The weird loneliness of this moment.
The field guidance discouraged passengers
And also the inability to access care when you are scared and sick.
Cough and shortness of breath for an hour? We’re not even going to test him
The weirdness of triaging and limited resources.
He held his phone. He began to push numbers on his screen.
He was the first patient I transported who was suspected of having Covid-19.
Then there’s a delightful section on training and decontamination procedures and how the universe works.
Of course, with an attitude like mine, it would happen—as it did—that I was the first EMT to go through the decontamination procedure
It’s an interesting perspective. It’s also cool to be reminded that so many good writers do other things. For a long time I felt like if I didn’t write for a living I was failng somehow but these jobs make you more interesting.