Sharing a Supernatural Experience From My Paramedic Years.

I was a paramedic for a long while. I enjoyed the job with the notable exception of dying and dead children that shit has stuck to me like glue. I average about one nightmare every two to three months, that's way down from years past when I'd get them three or four a week.

With that said, I need to share an experience that was supernatural. It did not involve a child.

We were called to a rural home. When we arrived, the patient was being treated by volunteer firefighter/first responders (God bless to all of those folks. You are worth more than communities know or care.)

Well, the man was in full cardiac arrest, fifty-ish year old smoker with family history of heart disease. Young, but not a shock. His family, of course, is freaking out.

We take him to the ambulance. Well, if you're in EMS you know medical codes 'are stay and play' (I know that sounds more crass than it is. It's a reminder that a paramedic equipped truck can do the majority of first line advanced cardiac arrest management.)

The guy is dead. He was well outside the 10 minute defibrillation mark where recovering pulse is slim to none, and a viable, functioning human is next to impossible without the intervention of the Divine.

So, we are working this guy. He was a good man and we all felt for his family. There are five people in the back, me, my partner, two firefighters, and neighbor who was an LPN.

Well, we are coding the hell out of this guy, a real, true team effort, no egoes in the way, no fucking superhero bullshit, just pros all in concert.

And that's when it happened, the kid I had bagging him was the least experienced so it was the best job for him. He is sitting in the Captain Seat at the head of the patient. (Good kid by the way, he's a full time firefighter now.) This kid stops cold and looks at the back of the door.

Well, we all stop and look at him first and he is just looking at the backdoor so we all turn and look at the back door of the ambulance.

Now this is the freaky part. There, looking in the window, is a solid apparition of the very man we are coding. He smiled then fades into the dark behind him.

We all just stopped for a second, looked at each other, and went back to work.