Everybody’s scared of something, sometime. It turns out that’s
not a bad thing, Life-Saver. Of course, some people are
irrationally fearful. But for most, fear is more like good
sense. It prompts them to moderate their contact with everything
from tall, shaky ladders to wrong-way traffic. Just out of
curiosity, I Googled the term “fear” and got 186,000,000 hits on
the first try. That seemed odd, because I have never found it
referenced in any EMS text. Nor have I ever heard anybody
mention it in any class or seminar I have ever taken. The public
seems to readily understand its importance, but our teachers
don’t seem to give it much thought. Yet, we learn quickly in the
field that fear is a focal element of every emergency. (I
believe, more than that, it’s a component of all suffering.)
It’s hard to communicate with sick people who are scared, until
you get them past their fear. Even if they’re violent because
they’re scared, that’s good news. Unlike almost any other
impediment to communication, fear is an adv