Black Flies Post #5

Al of the EMT work has made Ollie and Rut too nonchalant when it comes to stressful, depressing emergency calls. They arrive at a room with a woman, who had just given birth to a "still born" child lying on the floor, inside, who was "trying to cut the twisted umbilical cord with the jagged end of a broken crack pipe"(114). Ollie attended to the mother and Rut attended to the "dead" child. Rut cut the umbilical cord and left the room with the baby. He came back very soon after however. The cops arrived and asked about the baby's condition. Ollie said it was a stillborn, but the cop thought he saw it breathing. Ollie meanwhile finds out that the woman was HIV positive and decided not to take her pills for it to keep the baby from getting it either. Also, she was a crackhead and took methadone. No wonder the baby was born 7 and a half months early. Anyways, another precinct's ambulences show up and ask about the baby. Rut shows them the way to it in the hallway, under some towels. Rut and Ollie finish up with the mother, but they, or should i say Rut, is stopped on their way out. A lieutenant stopped Rut and asked for his badge. Rut asked why and the man simply responded, "That dead baby is breathing"(118). Both Ollie and Rut were questioned and Rut was released from duty for good.
In this situation, both the mother and the baby lived. It's hard to blame Rutkovsky for this situation. While he was to blame, I think there were other factors that hold more blame than he does. First of all, even the mother thought the baby was dead. I'm not saying that her viewpoint should be trusted. After all Rut was the EMT here, but any person would think the baby was dead. Second of all, any baby born into the world like that has a high high high probability of being still born. Lastly, the whole EMT job makes people go crazy. It puts an extreme amount of stress on a person. EMTs act like heros, but they are not superheroes. They will and do make mistakes. No one died in this situation which is good for Rut. I think it will possibly help him "recover" from what happened. I feel really bad for him. I am angry at the mother for acting like a complete idiot and i think she has some blame on her as well. Overall however, Rutkovsky undoubtedly made a mistake. I just hope he makes it out ok.