01/07/08 Suicide by shotgun

My new partner (on 01/08 we changed stations and crews - just a yearly change), and I responded to a attempt suicide at a residence. We arrived and were quickly flagged in by police (on scene). I was the first to enter and found patient in basement with shotgun lying next to him still smoking. Patient was a terminal cancer patient who (im thinking), just had enough with all the pain and decided to just have a good x-mas & new yr.  then end it all. Sad thing was that at the time he did it - all his family was upstairs and he just got up and walked down and put it to his chest and ......pulled.

Really cant get into much else at this time, but can say he was still alive and breathing. We did everything we could and got him to the E.R. Trauma ctr. "still" alive. Which was a miracle itself after 45 min of CPR and other life support  treatment. We did everything we could and we did get a "Good Job" from the trauma surgeon and my Capt./supervisor. patient was prounced dead in hospital after approx. 10 min. Just to much damage to repair that fast to save him.

This was the worst medical I have ever had to date (14 yrs). For my new partner (2 months off probation, 1 yr on F.D.) it was a great learning experince and one he"ll never forget. We had a good debriefing after and I know that there was nothing we could have done differently.

Monday was a tough day for me.

Copes