After spending some 20 years working as a paramedic, Ken has been with many Kiwis on their absolute worst days. While the job took its toll on his mental health, he says its continued to play on his mind when he thinks about his children – who he has never allowed to do one thing in particular as a result…
For 20 years on-and-off, Ken worked as a paramedic, before moving to a desk job at a charity organization.
“I loved the work – mostly,” he says. “On good days it was fulfilling, knowing I was out there helping people on their worst days, but, yeah. Seeing people’s worst days can wear you down.”
Ken moved to a desk job for a couple of years during the middle of his stint as a paramedic. “My wife was pregnant and it just, I don’t know, ignited something in me, I guess,” he says. “I was on edge, thinking something would happen to her. To our baby. She talked me into taking a break.”
The break ended up lasting three years, while he and his wife had two children.
“Nothing was the same after that,” he says. “I’d dread getting a call out where children were involved. I’d be thinking of my own. I’d be putting myself in the parent’s shoes. It was grueling. One of the hardest parts of the job is that you rarely get to find out what happened to a patient.”
Eventually Ken says it began taking too big of a toll on his mental health and he knew it was time to transition out of the job.
“There was one job, a car crash, the mother died – likely on impact – and her two kids were in car seats in the back. When we arrived, neither of them were responsive and for a moment, I froze. All I could think about was the father. What was he going to do if his entire family was wiped out? I felt that pressure so intensely that I was paralyzed for a second. You can’t do this job if you get paralyzed with fear. From what I heard, both kids survived, thankfully. But I had nightmares for weeks. It was time to go.”
Although it’s been years since he was on the front line as a paramedic, and his kids are now in their early 20s, there’s still one thing he’s always on their case about and he never wants to see them do.
“After everything I saw, I’d never want them on a motorbike,” he says.
“If I turned up to a scene where a motorcyclist was involved, I knew it wasn’t going to be pretty,” he says. “Those were some of the worst injuries – many of them were so catastrophic, they were impossible to survive.”
“You’ve got speed involved, but none of the protections that a car or vehicle provides,” he says. “And often, it wasn’t the motorcyclist who was at fault – the other driver just simply didn’t see them. You could be the best cyclist, and still end up in a crash.”
Ken says he’s drilled this into his kids – and still, as young adults, he always checks they’re wearing their seatbelts.
“I’ll call them, and they’ll say they’re driving,” he says. “They say it’s fine because they’re on hands-free but I hang up every time – it’s not worth the loss in concentration – but first, I always check they have their seatbelts on.”
