I had no intentions of sitting down and writing a post over the weekend. UNTIL an unsolicited USPS piece of mail.... [View all]

[usaf-vet]

Last edited Sun Apr 20, 2025, 01:48 PM - Edit history (1)

...... arrived. For the better part of four years in the nineteen sixties. I was a USAF Surgical Technician. It was a job I loved. On more than one occasion in those four years, I was called to scrub in for an emergency OBGYN procedure. What follows are my feelings from being there. And knowing exactly why it was an emergency. I guess the Easter weekend is as good a time as any to express my long-held beliefs. I was there.

When Duty Calls

There is a place few speak of and fewer still have stood — a space between life and death where the first breath will never be drawn, and yet another life still clings to the edge of time.

In that space, no one celebrates. No one mourns. Not yet. There is only focus, urgency, and the sacred duty of presence.

We were a team — young, trained, steady. We weren’t there to grant life or to pronounce death. We were there to stand in the middle, to ensure that when life had already passed in the womb, it would not also be taken from the mother who still breathed.

In those rooms — and there were many — we never cried. We couldn’t. There was always another life to consider. The one we could still save.

We didn’t witness the first flicker of life. That was God’s.
We didn’t see the last spark fade. That too, was God's.

But we were there to ensure that no one else took God’s place. Not an accident. Not a delay. Not the absence of care. Not ignorance. And certainly not a politician with no understanding of what happens when a mother’s womb holds death.

Each time we stepped into that room, we held to one sacred truth:

If you believe God plays a part in life and death, then He plays all the parts.
And if you do not, then it is still our duty to act with the best knowledge, the best training, and the best judgment we have — for the life that remains.

We gave mothers the chance to live and try again. That was the only miracle left to deliver.

So to those Senators & Representatives who speak loudly without ever having stood in that place: You were not there. You did not see. You did not save.

And you do not get to decide.

Let it be known: No legislator, no matter how righteous they claim to be, should ever come between a woman and her doctor in that room.

Because we were there, and we remember.

Addendum: Ectopic Pregnancy — A Reality Too Many Ignore

I want to take a moment to address something that was not explicitly mentioned above — the reality of ectopic pregnancies.

A ruptured ectopic pregnancy is a medical emergency. When it occurs, tissue is expelled into the abdominal cavity. If caught before rupture, the surgical intervention is simpler and far safer for the mother. But when it is ignored — as is tragically happening more and more across the country due to restrictive laws enacted to "prevent abortions" — the consequences are devastating.

A rupture brings with it massive internal bleeding, necrotic tissue, and the ever-looming threat of sepsis. To reduce the risk of infection, the entire abdominal cavity must be irrigated, often more than once. This extends the hospital stay and increases the risk of complications.

To the person who once said, "You might have saved my life," know this: the team who acted swiftly in your case did exactly what they were trained to do — without hesitation, and without needing to ask permission from a lawyer or a lawmaker.

It’s time we let doctors and trained medical teams do their jobs — before more lives are lost to delay, ignorance, and political posturing.

When Duty Calls — a team’s sacred stand between one death and the saving of a life.