2/5/07 Attempt suicide

We responded to an attempted suicide at a residence. As we arrived - this was not as dispatched - it was a "full" suicide in progress.

I now ask myself one question....?

What would drive a 30 yr. old male to stab himself with a knife over 18 times (I stopped counting at that point) in the neck, chest, arm, and both legs ?. Well the answer he was able to give me was that he just lost his job and broke up with his girlfriend. This was a male, my age, from a normal background, and a normal life.

We arrived and found him on the floor covered on blood. We started our treatment and all life saving procedures. I've never seen so much blood from one person in my 13 years as a fireman. I've never had so much trauma to one person "self-inflicted" in my 13 years as a fireman. Well to make a long story short we "saved" him and got him to a trauma center quickly - where now he will have a long recovery.

This leads me to think, "Did we really save him" ?. He was so commited to this act and now we runied it for him. What ever was happening to him was bad enough in his eyes to end it all and now somebody comes along and takes it away. I really hope our "save" turnes into a "save" for this guy and makes him understand what he is doing in his life and a better direction to follow.

I'll post a follow-up to this if I can.

Which also makes me think that my past few blog entries seem to have the same sentance lately - "never seen this in 13 years". I guess that a firemans blog is never a true repeat of itself at any time and should never get borring.

Copes