Duty towards others means paramedic’s compassion goes beyond first response
Shamsa Safar is shaped by the situations she sees every day,
More than a year after Shamsa Safar saved a man who was suffering from a heart attack, she still makes time to visit him in hospital. When her job as an emergency responder had ended that day, her sense of duty endured beyond what was expected of her to what she expected from herself.
But Ms Safar is not an average paramedic. A young Emirati woman in a male-dominated field, she says her job requires her to be mentally and physically strong.
In the past year alone, she has rushed to hundreds of incidents to help rescue people in danger. Ms Safar has to make life-changing decisions as soon as she arrives at a scene. From critical medical emergencies to major road accidents, she cannot afford to second guess herself.
“Every second matters while performing my job,” Ms Safar says. “Being the first emergency medical responder, I work against the clock.”
Ms Safar earned a bachelor of science degree in emergency medical services at the Higher Colleges of Technology, and trained at Dubai Corporation for Ambulance Services for three years before joining as a full-time paramedic a year ago.
“I always wanted to be a paramedic. I want to save people’s lives. Our job is completely different from working in any other job. Being a paramedic means that every second matters and every action taken is to save a person’s life,” she says.
The 24-year-old emergency medical responder sees her job as caring for all lives, no matter their age.
“We deal with highly-stressful events every day, but I will never forget the day I helped a woman struggling to give birth. This incident took place about seven months ago and I felt that our job is not only do to deal with people in danger of losing their lives, but also we help in the birth of a new life.”
Despite emergency response being an essential aspect of paramedicine, she says her job requires skills that extend far beyond emergencies.
The elderly Emirati man Ms Safar visits to this day is testament her dedication.
“He suffers from several illnesses, including diabetes and heart-related diseases. I felt that he was neglected by his family because his health keeps getting worse. I visited him this Tuesday at his home. He was not eating well.”
Ms Safar said that in many cases a medical emergency responder has to connect with the patient psychologically and socially. “I spoke to the Emirati patient and asked him why he is not eating well or accepting any food. I tried to connect with him to convince him to eat.”
Saving people is what she signed up for, but the nature of her job also involves a great deal of loss.
When she was called to help an Emirati woman suffering a cardiac arrest and the woman died despite her best efforts, Ms Safar was unable to sleep for days afterwards.
Being too emotional is Ms Safar’s strength and weakness, and she says cases involving children are the most difficult. “It is very painful to see a kid suffering from an injury. There are specific methods to deal with children and not to make them uncomfortable or frightened because of the way we are dressed.”
She says it is also difficult to attend accidents that could have been avoided.
“Once I received a report about someone who might be dead in a home, where the family of the home were abroad. I entered to find out that the cause of the smell was that the maid had died after her mobile exploded underneath her head. She was charging her phone and put it under her pillow.
“Other incidents when motorists die in crashes when speeding or not wearing a helmet while riding a bike, I feel that their deaths could have been prevented if they were a bit more careful.”
Her colleagues are a strong source of support in such cases.
“We go through similar experiences and they will understand how I feel about it.”
Ms Safar believes it is important to teach people how to react in case of emergency.
“I have experienced situations when people were intervening in my job, criticising what I do or even trying to move the patient.
“I stepped up in such situations and asked people around me to not to intervene or they can leave until we finish our job. They should be more aware about the importance of time when patients are suffering from a critical injury and the action required. For instance, moving a motorist after a car accident might affect their spinal cord.”
The advice she gives to anyone aiming to become an emergency responder is to earn a bachelor’s degree as she did and get lots of practice, act with courage, decisiveness and resolve, characterstics Ms Safar seems to have in abundance.