[ back ]
Caring people deserve bonuses
(by Barbara Christian - March 26, 2009)
WINDOW ON MAIN STREET, BY BARBARA CHRISTIAN
Caring people deserve bonuses
Our story begins in 1974. We were turning the attic of our post-World War II Cape Cod into bedrooms for our two children. There were stairs to the space, but we planned to install a pull-down staircase as a second access. We had not covered the hole in the floor when we called it a night.
We told ourselves that it was in such an out-of-the-way place it was unlikely anyone would fall through it, and, besides, there was a 6-inch lip around the hole, so, if anyone did come in contact with it, their toe would hit the lip before the hole.
Then Murphy's Law kicked in, and what could go wrong did. Sarah, then 5 years old, got out of bed in the middle of the night, got turned around in her sleepiness and, instead of heading for the bathroom, went the wrong direction and made the extra effort to step over the lip and into the abyss.
She landed in the first-floor hall right outside our bedroom door, and we knew instantly before fully awakening that the awful thud was the sound of one of the kids hitting the floor. The accident that would never happen did.
As it turned out, Sarah was not hurt, except for having the wind knocked out of her. We were all still shaking when we called the ambulance. What if she had internal injuries?
Back in the 1970s, the only ambulance service in the Chagrin Falls area was provided by the two funeral homes in town -- Stroud's and Reed-Nichols. Funeral director Roy Nichols -- whom I do not think had extensive medical training -- gently placed Sarah on the stretcher, slid her into the ambulance, and off we went, siren blaring.
Once at Geauga Community Hospital, its name at the time, we were relieved to see the kind and familiar face of Chagrin Falls neighbor Eileen Clegg, a nurse with small children of her own. She made sure we knew that Sarah was in good hands.
Our family's trauma ended on a happy note. Sarah survived the ordeal, has three children of her own and tells them the story of the night she fell through a hole in the ceiling and Murphy's Law.
Flash forward 40 years. Last month, I found myself in an ambulance again and then in the hospital. This time, the ambulance was not just for transportation, as Roy's was, and the hospital was much bigger.
The world has made technological giant steps in the medical world since the 1970s, but the world we find ourselves in has not become any kinder. There is a pervasive "me first" attitude out there.
But I am here to report, the people in the ambulance -- now highly trained emergency technicians -- and the people in the hospital are as caring and comforting as Roy and Eileen were all those years ago.
Not one has the soul of a Bernie Madoff. There is no big money in the white-hat professions. These folks joined up, because they have a calling.
These are the people who are moving constantly, interrupt their dinners when the alarm rings, answer patients' buzzers, even though it is past the end of their shift, and are unfailingly caring and kind.
These are the people who should get the bonuses.
[ back ]
