JarlaxleBaenre said:
What's the toughest job you've take?
Toughest job would have to be either the job in Layton by Hill AFB because of all the walking and strict guidelines and procedures involved every night, or when I was working at the Boeing plant next to Salt Lake International because not only was I security there I was also the onsite EMT and I saw a lot of people get hurt while working on industrial machines. I stopped working as an EMT because people getting hurt was really starting to get to me. The last straw was when a guy using a sheet steal cutting band saw cut his arm from the spot between his thumb and forefinger on his left hand all the way up to his elbow length wise. It cut through his wrist, slicing two of his wrist bones in half, and then was guided by his radius and ulna bones to just short of the elbow. I didn't have time to grab my jump kit in the lobby so I took his hoodie that was hanging on his chair, tied it off above the elbow, wrapped it around his arm and tied off the other sleeve at the wrist and made a makeshift sling out of it. I was covered in his blood and practically carried him to the company vehicle we had on site. I was driving him up to LDS hospital in the Avenues area of Salt Lake, trying to keep him awake because he had gone into shock. I got pulled over for speeding, but when the officer saw what had happened he gave me an escort to the ER and had radioed ahead so they could have a crash team ready.
Miraculously they saved his arm and he only lost a little dexterity in his thumb and wrist. He had lost 3 pints of blood. I'm still on his Christmas Card list. I met his whole family and it was very emotional. If I remember correctly they had to graft a new artery because of the damage done by the saw, even though the cut was fairly clean.
But after that I just couldn't do medical work anymore, even though a lot of people like my boss and my parents pointed out that without me and being able to keep my head in a crisis that guy would have probably lost his arm or even bled out and died. But the emotional and psychological aspect of situations like that last for years and it wasn't until I was going through therapy for my bipolar disorder that I was able to get over most of it. I had nightmares about it for years, sometimes still dream about it to this day. I was borderline PTSD for a long time and even seeing a band saw at a hardware store would set me on edge, nearly to a panic attack.
People have this notion that security officers are just fat, dumb, uneducated cop wannabes...and to be honest that stereotype, like most stereotypes, does come from some truth. There are a LOT of lazy, dumb guards out there that have delusions that they are somehow part of the law enforcement profession. But there are a lot of sites that have guards for a reason, and some of those sites can be very stressful. The guards that are put on those kinds of sites are there because they take their job seriously and are very professional. I'm one of those officers who is a professional and takes pride in his work. I've been known to be a bit of a "snitch" at some companies I work for because if I see a fellow guard who isn't doing what he's supposed to do or looks sloppy or doesn't act right I tell management, because it makes the company and the profession look bad. They perpetuate the stereotype that were all borderline retards who can't get any other job.
