As a volunteer in Magen David Adom (the ambulance service in Israel) I've got an opportunity to experience many different things that changed my view on life. I've seen people throw up, cry, scream and worst of all, die. This hasn't happened often but it is usually difficult to deal with but you learn that it is a part of life and we should be happy that we also get a chance to save people and I always try to put a smile on the patients face because there is nothing better than to see someone smile even though you know that person is in pain. I didn't choose to volunteer in MDA because I wanted to save lives, it was a part of my program and to be honest I didn't really have any choice but once I started I realised that saving someones life is an indescribable feeling.
Most people that start volunteering want the rush of going with the sirens on and coming to a call with someone severely injured. I can't deny that I didn't want that in the beginning. I sat there everyday on the station waiting for a call where the dispatcher would say that it was a car accident with someone injured or a CPR or just anything where it actually felt like an emergency. I enjoyed helping people and feeling that they actually were alive because of me and my team. I had my fair share of interesting calls and after seeing most of the things I had on my checklist such as CPR, an open wound and car accidents where the driver had to be cut out of the car I started to feel satisfied. I started coming to MDA for the people and not for the action.
It wasn't that I didn't enjoy helping people but I didn't have the need to see all these exciting things anymore. I realised that MDA was so much more than that.
When going through difficult times in the ambulance you need to be able to support each other. As a team you laugh and cry together which create a family. You need to be able to open up to the people you work with and you have to realise that if there is something you need help with it is important to let them know. A driver I worked with a lot told another driver during a night shift that MDA aren't friends, it's a job. When he said that I got a bit surprised first, for me MDA are my friends but then I realised what he meant. MDA is a job but a job where people become like a family, you don't choose your family but you have to be able to get along with them and support each other through hard times.
All my time in MDA has taught me many things about Israel, other people but mostly myself. I've learnt how I react in situations I never thought I would be in, not just when it comes to different calls but also in what kind of atmosphere I feel comfortable in. I now know that I don't like big crowds and prefer doing shifts when there aren't many people on the station. I also know that I enjoy filling out forms and check the ambulance. These things might sound like small things in life that isn't important to know about yourself but for me it is.
It has taught me that life doesn't always have to be exciting for us to enjoy it, we can enjoy the small things in life. As much as I've enjoyed seeing interesting calls and learnt a lot from it I don't crave it anymore. I enjoy the variety of things we get to see in the ambulance and in the end it doesn't really matter what person we have in the ambulance, my role is to make that person feel as comfortable as possible on the way to the hospital and if I can make that person smile, I've done my job right.
Most people that start volunteering want the rush of going with the sirens on and coming to a call with someone severely injured. I can't deny that I didn't want that in the beginning. I sat there everyday on the station waiting for a call where the dispatcher would say that it was a car accident with someone injured or a CPR or just anything where it actually felt like an emergency. I enjoyed helping people and feeling that they actually were alive because of me and my team. I had my fair share of interesting calls and after seeing most of the things I had on my checklist such as CPR, an open wound and car accidents where the driver had to be cut out of the car I started to feel satisfied. I started coming to MDA for the people and not for the action.
It wasn't that I didn't enjoy helping people but I didn't have the need to see all these exciting things anymore. I realised that MDA was so much more than that.
When going through difficult times in the ambulance you need to be able to support each other. As a team you laugh and cry together which create a family. You need to be able to open up to the people you work with and you have to realise that if there is something you need help with it is important to let them know. A driver I worked with a lot told another driver during a night shift that MDA aren't friends, it's a job. When he said that I got a bit surprised first, for me MDA are my friends but then I realised what he meant. MDA is a job but a job where people become like a family, you don't choose your family but you have to be able to get along with them and support each other through hard times.
All my time in MDA has taught me many things about Israel, other people but mostly myself. I've learnt how I react in situations I never thought I would be in, not just when it comes to different calls but also in what kind of atmosphere I feel comfortable in. I now know that I don't like big crowds and prefer doing shifts when there aren't many people on the station. I also know that I enjoy filling out forms and check the ambulance. These things might sound like small things in life that isn't important to know about yourself but for me it is.
It has taught me that life doesn't always have to be exciting for us to enjoy it, we can enjoy the small things in life. As much as I've enjoyed seeing interesting calls and learnt a lot from it I don't crave it anymore. I enjoy the variety of things we get to see in the ambulance and in the end it doesn't really matter what person we have in the ambulance, my role is to make that person feel as comfortable as possible on the way to the hospital and if I can make that person smile, I've done my job right.
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