If You Don't Laugh, You'll Cry.

I don't know what made me think of this little story. Perhaps the thought of going back to work tomorrow kind of depressed me and somewhere in my random train of thought I decided to laugh instead of cry and that's what reminded me.

As those of you that know me are aware, I work on an ambulance and will sometimes witness things that can't be forgotten. Sometimes I witness things that I just can't figure out as to if they are funny, tragic, bland, or what. Here is a case in point.

My partner and I were called to a church for a feinting, and for a possible DOA. OK, so right off we were looking at each other thinking, "what the heck?". Did dispatch screw up? Did someone see a dead body and feint? What is a dead body doing in a church? Is this a crime scene? Is the person who feinted the same person that is possibly a DOA? Sometimes we just have to shrug and assume we will find out what's going on after we get there.

We arrived at the church and the door was equipped with the standard frantic waiver/pointer guiding us to the obvious. As we walked into the sanctuary it was quickly apparent that we were at a funeral interrupted. I bit my lip and kept my professional poker face on as I started to realize that the DOA dispatch was talking about was probably the center of this somber gathering's attention. Not much we can do for someone who has already been embalmed.

Our patient was found up on the platform lying down but conscious with someone fanning her face. Beside the patient was a coffin. A tiny coffin. My heart went limp. As my partner who was in front of me moved to the patient I caught out of the corner of my eye a small bundle at the bottom of the three stairs that led up to the platform and altered my path to affirm my suspicion. I picked up the deceased infant as gently and respectfully as I could and walked up and placed him back in his coffin. I straightened out his clothes and posed his hands as best I could and walked over to my partner and my patient. The patient was fine and did not need any medical intervention. One of the funeral attendees was able to relate to us what had happened.

The lady who had feinted was the mother of the deceased who had been a SIDS victim. Mom had gone up to the coffin and picked up her child. In her grieving she had become so emotional and had been weeping so hard that she passed out and in so doing dropped the body which went bouncing across the stage and down the stairs end over end. My partner and I expressed our condolences and returned to our ambulance. As we drove away in silence we stopped at a light and my partner let out a half grunt, half chuckle and this sent me into a snicker.

"That was horrible!" he said.

"Yeah," I was half smiling and shaking my head, "I'm not quite sure how to get back to work mode after that. It was tragic with a touch of the ludicrous."

"Mm hmm"

I have no idea how this story strikes you, but I know that it has struck you if you are human. The balance between compassion and sanity may be easy for you without many horrible events to work through, but never lose the ability to laugh. While it is wrong to laugh at the suffering of others, you will never be able to carry the sorrows of all the world and if you try, you will never be of comfort to anyone. If we did not laugh, we would cry. God bless.