I've had paramedics tell me they'll go beyond what the protocols say to try to resuscitate people because they won't the extra paperwork involved in dealing with a death.
A paramedic I know failed to revive an elderly woman who'd collapsed at home. The rescue attempts were watched by the woman's (panicked) daughter, who was a nurse. The daughter later threatened to sue, saying he was negligent for not performing a procedure that she thought was necessary. Paramedic was called before some lawyers, at which point they found out he'd actually done a lot more than protocol had required in those circumstances, and the case was dropped.
Nice way to say thanks for trying to save your mom.
I'm not sure what they meant by "more paperwork," but in most locations, working an arrest will result in a whole lot more paperwork than simply calling it in the field. All interventions (intubation, IV access, medications, defibrillation attempts, etc) have to be documented (who did it, when they did it, etc).
That's a whole lot more paperwork than "Confirmed asystole in 3 leads, see attached strip"
I don't know. They might have just been hamming it up for the benefit of the story. Those guys all have a seemingly weird attitude towards death, often appearing somewhat blasé about it. They can't take things too personally when someone dies while they're working on them.
Me? I build websites. If something blows up it can always be fixed. New hardware can be bought. Back ups restored. Apart from some downtime, everything is as good as new.
Them? Turn up on a job not necessarily knowing what to expect. Some times they'll find a situation they can literally do nothing about and, oooops, someone's dead.
Someone dying in front of me is an incredibly bad day at the office i'll never forget. Watching people die as an emergency responder is kinda part of the job description.
I actually do both. I'm a freelance developer, as well as a Firefighter/EMT (currently working on my paramedic certification).
The worlds aren't as far apart as you might think... While the stakes (and the pace) are obviously different, I think I enjoy both of them because of the challenge they present. My favorite part of the development process is troubleshooting (either new code or old... doesn't really matter). EMS is really all about troubleshooting. _Something_ is causing whatever this patient's issue is, I just need to figure out what it is and mitigate it to the best of my ability.
A paramedic I know failed to revive an elderly woman who'd collapsed at home. The rescue attempts were watched by the woman's (panicked) daughter, who was a nurse. The daughter later threatened to sue, saying he was negligent for not performing a procedure that she thought was necessary. Paramedic was called before some lawyers, at which point they found out he'd actually done a lot more than protocol had required in those circumstances, and the case was dropped.
Nice way to say thanks for trying to save your mom.