Summing it Up

It was during the very last class of my EMT-Basic course, and toward the second half of that class, somewhere between eight and nine o’clock at night, the fluorescent light illuminating the sheets of 110 questions – a previous state exam from several years ago – in front of each student. The question we were working on was about a patient with a transient ischemic attack (a stroke) who suffered paralysis on one half of his body – which symptoms are associated with the paralyzed limbs?

The class was silent as the clock ticked behind the teacher’s desk, above a blank dry-erase board and next to a large, ripped, copy of the Periodic Table of Elements staring back at us.

“Well,” the teacher started. “Has anyone here worked with a patient with paralysis before?”

A single hand shot up from halfway back, from a row inhabited mostly by males in their 20′s who’d been known to be somewhat silly and talkative at times throughout the class. The student who’d raised his hand, bearded and always wearing a baseball cap, looked back at the teacher.

“So describe what the affected limbs were like,” the teacher coaxed.

The student thought for a bit, all eyes turned to him for the correct answer to the question. Well, all eyes turned to him to see what his answer would be, at any rate, since many had already read ahead and circled whatever answers they figured would most likely be correct. The student cleared his throat. “Well. One side of his body was paralyzed. The limbs were … well… they were all, like, paralyzed.”

A collective shout of laughter rung out. The instructor ducked down behind his desk, trying to stop giggling. It was much needed, though unintentional, comic relief. And yes, paralyzed limbs can usually be described as paralyzed.

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