HOUSTON – Before I started on the long road towards the honorable career that is journalism, I worked in a similarly respectable field: emergency medicine. For several years, I worked as an EMT-B, handling emergencies and ferrying patients all over Harris County.
There are many things that stick with me from that time: The comradery between me and my fellow medics, the heart-pounding feeling of racing through traffic with sirens blaring, and the quiet peace that comes as you finally get a second to breathe in between calls.
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But more than anything else, I think what sticks with me the most is just how pointlessly tragic some emergencies can be. In many cases, especially around the holidays, simple carelessness could quickly turn a day of celebration into a whirlwind of grief and pain.
Every Fourth of July, our day would inevitably play out the same: We would get a call, throw our boots on, and rush as fast as humanly possible to a local residence, knowing that every second counted.
There, we would take in the scene, bit by bit. The smell of cooking hot dogs would merge with the piercing sound of a dog barking, all working in concert to draw your attention to the mess of mangled flesh that used to be someone’s hand only a few minutes prior.
I’ll spare the rest of the gory details, but you get the picture. Every year, you would think that maybe there’s a slight chance we don’t get a call like that, and every year, without fail, we would end up having to tell someone that their child might not be able to hold a pencil again.
According to the 2023 U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s Annual Fireworks Report, 66% of fireworks related injuries occurred in the weeks before and after July 4th. Approximately 9,700 people were treated for firework injuries that year, with eight people unfortunately passing away due to these injuries.
While some of these injuries were adults -- teenagers and children had the highest rates of fireworks-related injuries.
Tragically, fireworks are far from the only way to sustain serious injuries during the holidays. Nearly every year, we would also respond to calls where someone had been seriously injured by celebratory gunfire. In 2022 alone, the Harris County Sheriff’s Office received 678 calls related to celebratory gunfire.
Even if people think they’re firing their guns at a “safe distance,” experts say that some bullets can travel up to a mile through the air before potentially hitting someone.
For every one of these calls, we had to console grieving family as they watched us wrap their loved one up in gauze and do our best to keep them alive, all because one person got too trigger-happy.
In one particularly memorable case, a child ended up being struck by a bullet fired after an Astros game. Unfortunately, that child ended up passing away, their life ended by an act of simple carelessness that could have been easily prevented.
I say all this not to discourage partying it up on the long weekend; far from it, in fact. While working during the holidays was challenging at points, it was always my honor to help people stay safe so they could truly enjoy themselves.
But the fact of the matter is, these calls impact more people than most might realize. Harris County is large, and emergency services are frequently placed under high amounts of strain.
Especially with temperatures on the rise, your local firefighters, medics and police officers are already going to be under duress as they try to handle heat-related emergencies.
Many of these emergency workers are underpaid and overworked, and no matter how tough many of them may seem, these calls stick with them. And more importantly, there’s a very real chance that you could permanently change someone’s life in a moment.
So as we head into this Fourth of July weekend, don’t forget to have a great time. Fire up the grill, gather friends and family, and celebrate what makes this country special.
But consider taking a moment to read up on safety as you make your holiday plans. You never know, you might just save a life.