Lives Lost

by Columbus Firefighter   Apr 19, 2007


As the pager tones sounded for that dreaded call,

The adrenaline pumped, the fear wound up in a ball.

"Two car MVA with injuries" the dispatcher confessed,

My fears grew worse as I got dressed.

At the station, everyone came,

Firefighters, EMTs, off-duty policemen who were the same.

They all knew it would be bad,

We all prayed that for some family, tonight would not turn sad.

At the scene, steam hissed, people bawled,

We counted five people in all.

Two adults and two kids in one car, one drunk in the other,

Killed on impact were a father and a mother.

We told the chief to come and see,

The police were needed, so was the M.E.

We covered the first two so the kids couldn't see,

Their parents had ceased to be.

The drunk driver had a mere scratch,

The other injuries would be no match.

A boy and a girl,who were both wearing seatbelts,

All we could see were just some welts.

Unannounced to us, because that was all we could see,

Both kids had closed head injuries.

Pulses dropped, blood pressures went sky high,

We knew what that meant, but we weren't about to let them die.

We left the scene, racing down the road,

Lights and sirens, that was our code.

We got to the hospital not a moment too soon,

As we lept from the rig, we saw the full moon.

We got back to our senses, rushed the kids inside,

Time was of the essence, since two had already died.

The police arrived at the hospital you know,

The drunk driver between them, his head hung low.

The kids went from the E.R. to the O.R. in no time flat,

The police said the mother was Veronica, the father was Matt.

Paperwork was finished, the rig equipment cleaned,

We hung around for awhile, but hours it seemed.

We waited and waited for news from nurse Able,

Our hopes were soon dashed, both kids died on the table.

When we got to the firehouse, everyone was still there,

They were just talking, saving us a chair.

We all talked, some of us cried,

Over the fact that one was alive, and a family had died.

The funerals were held sometime later, we were asked to attend,

We all went, it helped us to mend.

Family was there, friends were too,

They all thanked us, for it was the best that we could do.

-UNKNOWN

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