It's Called "The Golden Hour"

It's called "The Golden Hour" for a reason. It's that 60 minutes a person has between the time that something life threatening has happened and when they can receive critical care. It's known as the Golden Hour and every precious second counts and means the difference between life or death, or even life and life support. This is when you see first response emergency medical personnel rushing to save someone's life as best as they know how to. I have a brother who does this for a living. He rides on one of the emergency helicopters in our area known as "Life Flight" and he loves it. He was born for this kind of high adrenaline life saving occupation! I might add he's good at it too. There are days though, when his arrival in the whirley bird ends up being more of a delivery of the deceased then a white hot push to save the injured person faster than an ambulance could get them to a trauma unit. Those are the days that come the end of his shift, he goes home to his family and hugs them tight. If it's late at night, he'll stand in the doorway to his young son's room and stare at the sleeping form of his offspring and silently whisper words of thanks to a benevolent creator that allows him to come home every night. My brother lives to succeed in that Golden Hour, it's what he knows best. He's gentle when he needs to be with accident victims, both young and old alike. He also has a wicked sense of humor in spades though. An example would be a recent practice flight run to a scene. the fire engine on the accident "scene" radioed to the helicopter for an ETA (Estimated Time of Arrival) to the sight for pickup. Since this was just a training flight, my brother decides to have some fun with the fireman who is keyed up on the mike. He states that the helicopter is held up by a train but will be there shortly. now picture the silence that has come over the radio as you have to figure that the fireman is relaying this message as per protocol to his buddies and stops short. "Ummm, the helicopter is held up by a train.....ummmmmmm.....guess it can't fly over the tracks?" It's this sense of humor that a first responder needs to deal with some of the horrific accidents that they experience at a great many of their call outs. That humor has helped pacify a patient who might otherwise have been too scared to relax while being cared for under the diligent fingertips of emergency medical personnel like my brother. Every time I see one of those Life Flights helicopters racing overhead, I smile and know that it may be the Golden Hour for the person inside, but he or she is being well cared for by my brother or one of his co-workers.