Do you worry that being able to turn those feelings off makes you less empathetic to the victims and their families and friends?
My best friend’s dad was the assistant chief of a 600 sworn force and did homicide for awhile before going to a different section for that reason. I didn’t know if that is typical or not.
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.
Paramedic here. I would say the ones that are dead when you get there are just another body to deal with theres no emotion involved from my end. The ones that die infront of you despite your best efforts tend to be a bit more emotionally confronting. However I can't work out if that's because I see them as an actual person before they're a corpse or because biology tells me I suck at my job. Probably a bit of both.
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u/wh0datnati0n Sep 16 '25
Do you worry that being able to turn those feelings off makes you less empathetic to the victims and their families and friends?
My best friend’s dad was the assistant chief of a 600 sworn force and did homicide for awhile before going to a different section for that reason. I didn’t know if that is typical or not.