need some help.... accident that i witnessed and more...

2001xlt4d · #1 10-09-2009, 07:39 PM

I was with my brother when we went to get his new truck. Well we were in my old car (chevy malibu) i decided that i wanted to go back roads to get the dealership... well that's when that day went from normal to something i will never get out of my head again. I had just crossed over county lines and in the first curve of a curvey road. i come up to the next curve and notice a chevy malibu in the opposite lane loose control and run up an imbankment. A teenaged girl was ejected and the car rolled over her. depappitating her. I sudden stop and put the car into park. i went head and put my car in the middle of the road so no one could pass my vehicle ( something i learned in explorers) i have an emt jump bag.. (basically an oh shit bag. ) i grab it and start to go to the girl. At that time i didnt know that she was de-capped so i was going to try to asses for any injuries.. i come up to her and trust me words cant describe what i saw. and im not even going to try to descibe it to yall. I get the driver of the vehicle to stay away from the girl and i place our cover-all over her to stop people from looking at the body. I try to talk to the driver but at this point he is hysterical and had every rite to be. He said that he was changing the radio for her and he lost control causing the car to swerve off and hit the embankment. At the time he didnt know that she was deceased. He was asking where she was and is she okay. I had to tell him that she was killed. He went from hysterical to basket case in .01 seconds. Meanwhile, my brother is on the phone with the 911 operator. what felt like forever went by and then the sheriffs deputy came. said yep shes dead and then left... needless to say he didnt have a job the next day.. the paramedics come and they take her off to the morgue. But in order for them to take her i had to distract the driver while they placed the head back on the body. before the paramedics left the state trooper comes screaming down the road and makes everyone stop. According to him, he has to take pics of every fatality accident. so they had to take pics where she was laying and of the car and all. needless to say i am still having a hard time with this whole thing. anything anyone can advise me besides seeing a shrink? link to article: http://www.newtoncitizen.com/main.as...ectionID=2&S=1

Alfreado121 · #2 10-09-2009, 07:53 PM

hey man im really sorry to read about your day. something like that cant just be out of your head in any way. i witnessness something like this two years ago on my way to wrestling practice. i was walking out to my car after school and i saw a girl speeding in a car hit two of my fellow classmates. what i saw still gets to me when i drive down that road by my school. i didnt go see anyone for what i was feeling inside sometimes i wish i would have and i even think i still should but i havent. its a hard thing to say let alone think about it but it makes me think of how much life means to me and how lucky we are as people. things happen to us that we have no control over but we are all thankfll for those skilled trained people around us that like you can be calm in a moment of need. the way you parked your car and took control of what you witnessed amazes me and i know it might not help out but i want to thank you for being able to control a situation like you did.

and if it makes you feel better i would go see a specialist or just talk to a good friend that will listen to you and just talk. it always helps to have someone there

so best of luck to you with everything

Fx4wannabe01 · #3 10-09-2009, 07:55 PM

words cannot describe the way I feel about what I just read.... one word sums it up: wow.

You did the right thing, you did what you were trained to do and I commend you for that. It will surely be traumatizing for some time. I know it would be for me. It won't go away for while.

I'm sorry, I can't really tell you what to do. What you just did was a form of coping, telling/saying/talking about what happened.

greyghost · #4 10-09-2009, 08:45 PM

may i say i can feel for what your going through. i've been a firefighter /emt since i've been 18 years old. i've seen just about everything there is to see and was involved in the cleanup in shanksville,pa after 9-11-01. nothing you can do in schooling for fire/medical can ever prepare you for what you will be faced with in this field. what you have been doing is the best thing you can do. talk to people and please what ever you do do not keep it bottled up inside of you or keep thinking "i wish i could have done more" you did everything you humanly could that day. and there's nothing wrong with seeing a shrink if you have to there's a lot of stress and anxiety that can cause more harm than good if you chose to hide and don't seek help if needed. only you can be the judge of this. i will say your no less of a man for asking for help if you really need it..

well i've rambled on long enough continue to talk about it and i wish you the best in dealing with this ..

02'4.04x4 · #5 10-09-2009, 10:19 PM

I hate to say it it is just one of those things that'll shake you from time to time. Shrinks don't have much to offer in the way of the flashbacks, they'll just happen. After doing what I did for so long the best I came up with was understanding that it happend the best way it could. You know like, have you ever prayed why, why did this have to happen? Couldn't it have been something less. Then one day out of nowhere it came to me that maybe infact this was the lesser of two evils and my prayers were answered before I even spoke them. My being alive today is sheer luck/blessing/Allah's will whatever you would call it. I have seen things I will not disturb you with. So if it helps just think of it as she would have suffered greatly and been mortally handicapped, but through the Grace of God she was sparred the experience. The only ones who give a crap about being alive are those who are alive. Many a friend of mine lay peacefully as the rest of us lived the grunt of the situations. She never knew what hit her. Her mind made it to about oh crap and then blanked. In traumatic situations it is much different then many know it. You fall into a bit of a drugged state, things don't function as they normally would and your mental state becomes highly retarded. Some have come close to this trying to dial 911 after an intense auto accident, it does not work(your mind). So in closing she is in a better place and doesn't even know what happened. I hope her brother is okay and you will be fine it'll just take some time and reckogning by you.
God Bless you for being there for her.
HTH, E6 US Army Rangers Spec Ops.

My God man 13 years old, that is a shame.

FireRanger · #6 10-10-2009, 07:49 AM

Damn man. There isn't going to be anything you do to get it out of your head. The best thing to do is talk about it with people who understand. Its simply venting and it doesn't need to be a shrink. We'll talk more on AIM later.