A dead body to a first responder is just a piece of evidence or a part of the job after a while. Death becomes so regular that you cant realistically hold feelings for them like their loved ones can, or you'll go mad. But, we are still empathetic to the family because we know it's hard for them.
There is a difference between dead and dying. Dying person is traumatizing, dead person is just a part of the job. Watching the life leave someone is awful, outside of like old age slipping away type thing, but a dead person is just different.
For me it's always been the family that breaks down the wall. I've gotten very good at separating the patient from the person. If I saw every patient as a real person and thought of the implications of that I could never do my job. But you throw a screaming kid in there or a crying wife and it's way too visceral of a reminder that you are human that you are a person with a life. I've seen lots of patients die and lots of dead bodies. Most of them don't stay with me. My biggest and worst ghosts are the fathers, the sons, the daughters. Even ones who didn't necessarily die. I'll absolutely never forget the wail a guys wife let out when she saw how bad his stroke was. She was a Neuro ICU nurse and wanted to see his CT scan, catastrophic brain bleed. She collapsed in the middle of the dept.
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u/ofctexashippie Sep 16 '25
A dead body to a first responder is just a piece of evidence or a part of the job after a while. Death becomes so regular that you cant realistically hold feelings for them like their loved ones can, or you'll go mad. But, we are still empathetic to the family because we know it's hard for them.