“Code green to 18” - a common announcement over the intercom during a night shift in the emergency department. What is a “code green”? A “code green” means a staff member is requesting assistance with an unruly or combative patient. This could mean somebody threatening violence to staff, themselves or another patient, but it could also mean they have actually gone through with their threat! Luckily that doesn’t happen often.

Fire academy was, for me, an experience I will never forget. Not only did I learn a lot about fire fighting, I learned a lot about myself.

Winter of 2005 and I’m staying in the dorms at the fire academy. After finishing volunteer academy I decided it was time to pursue firefighting as a career. I decided to stay in the dorms mostly because of the distance I would have to commute, but also for the experience.

It was early evening on a warm summer's day. It had been a slow day (don't say the “s" word around a paramedic or you are likely to get hit with something.) Tones dropped for chest pain. The address was familiar, a home we responded to often for alcohol-related domestic disturbance. We were met at the door by a frantic male, obviously drunk, saying his wife was having a heart attack.