divulgence // luke hemmings au

13

"Happy Monday! Welcome back to another episode, I have no idea what number we're up to but sitting across from me for the first time in two years is Captain Luke Hemmings and his son and daughter." Gaby kicked off the podcast, her guests eager to be there.

"A lot has changed since I was last here." Luke spoke up, while fixing his leather jacket.

"Oh yes! You're captain now, last time we spoke you were lieutenant! How has the changes been?"

"Everything has changed but nothing has changed. I was already used to having an authoritarian role, ya know. The upgrade is that I get to assign trucks, crews and shifts. If someone asked me the first year on the job if I would ever consider being a lieutenant or a captain I would've said no way. It took a lot to get where I am now."

"Well I want to formally congratulate you on this achievement. Congratulations, Luke."

"Thank you. I wouldn't trade this job for anything." Luke's voice was very cheery.

"Another amazing this has happened too, your son, who is sitting to your left, graduated medic school and now works along side you. What's that like?"

"It's awesome to have him at my side every day on every single call. He's a very bright kid, he knows his stuff. I'm very proud of him, I'm super blessed to have him work along side me."

Elliot was so happy.

"Like Dad said, I'm so blessed to get this opportunity. There is not a lot of people who get to experience what I do. My Dad has been my mentor my entire life, he introduced me into the wonderful and fulfilling world that is healthcare and I could never trade that for anything else."

"Luke, I can see you smiling really big. What's the upside of Elliot working with you?"

"The positive side of working with your son is that you'll never hate the person you're working along side with. I get to see him grow and change even more each day. I also like how we both understand what this job entails and we can decompress and talk things out together."

"Are the hard calls hard when you know you're both experiencing the same thing together?"

"No I don't think so. I think it's more helpful than anything else, especially since I'm a seasoned medic and he's a rookie. He's still experiencing all his firsts and navigating all the crazy. The mental health aspects of this job are so important."

"Now when you say firsts, Luke, can you go in depth a little more?"

"Sure, usually in this field when we're speaking of firsts we're usually speaking about the first time you experienced a trauma or a DOA, or arrest. I just went back to work yesterday after being off for two weeks and Elliot experienced his first witnessed arrest where he was not able to get the patient back." Elliot looked super bummed out when his dad mentioned that.

"Elliot, I'm sorry."

"It's alright it's apart of the job. It's a learning experience."

"On this particular call it was a seventy three year old male, who was having chest pains and shortness of breath on and off all day. His family finally convinced him to call 9-1-1. When we get there we're doing a full work up, only issue is we can't obtain a BP, which makes giving certain meds wonky. We hold off because we don't want to take any chances." Luke trailed off mid story.

Gaby was listening intently.

"We get him in the truck because we're almost certain that this guy is either having a heart attack or had one beforehand. We're strapping him in, giving fluids, all that good stuff. I'm literally about to exit the rig to drive to the hospital, the patient codes. Elliot's a bit shell shocked and I look at him and go 'you're initiating compressions'. He starts, I make him lead me through the code the entire time, I literally have him tell me what to do. He applied all his skills perfectly. Unfortunately we work the code in the back of the rig for nearly a half hour, the doc on the phone made us terminate the code and we call it on scene."