KD,

I’m sorry to hear about your friend and I imagine your whole group of friends are rattled to their cores. It’s a different world when I’m at work because emotion isn’t factored into the equation. When I have to work on a patient I am able to compartmentalize it and focus on my training and experience to do what needs to be done. As a crew we do everything we can for a good patient outcome, but it doesn’t always turn out the way we hope and we have to be okay with that.

Some of the things we see on the freeway or in fires is absolutely horrific, but each of us has our own way of dealing with those images and experiences. For me, it’s more difficult when emotion is involved; when kids get injured or killed that are close in age to my own daughters I have a hard time pushing those thoughts out of my head. For the most part, however, I’ve figured out how to deal with it. 

Hands down the most difficult incident I’ve ever had was while I was off-duty recently. I was testing a bike at Cahuilla Creek and I saw a group gathered around a downed rider. I could see the rider wasn’t moving so I rode over to see if I could help. The downed rider didn’t crash, but simply fell over while he was riding. He didn’t have a pulse, so I went right into work mode doing the things that need to be done in a cardiac arrest situation. It wasn’t until several minutes into the incident that I realized I knew the person I was working on and it changed everything for me. I wasn’t just performing a series of skills and assessments on a patient, I was trying to save the life of a person I knew and whose son was a friend of mine. I stayed on scene after the fire department arrived and made sure they followed protocols and made every effort possible for the patient. That friend passed away at the hospital later that day and it was, and still is, the toughest thing I’ve ever had to work through. 

My department has a critical incident management team and I reached out to them to talk about it. For me, it was cathartic to talk to co-workers about the call and have them share similar experiences and things they did that helped. The bottom line, for me, is that it just takes some time. Honestly, I was an emotional wreck for a few days after the incident but it has gotten better with time. I’d encourage you to find somebody to talk to about it if you’re still struggling with it. This sport is dangerous but there are way more deaths on our freeways than we will ever have on dirt bikes. One thing I take away from work every day is that we aren’t guaranteed one second on this planet. Plan for the future because that is the pragmatic thing to do. But I constantly remind myself to live every day like it’s going to be my last because you just never know. Feel free to reach out to me in an email if you need somebody to talk with.

PING

David

I was in Michigan last weekend and saw this statue outside Tiger stadium. Political royalty in your background? Are you hiding this from your fans?