MILWAUKEE — Bill Thompson is a critical care paramedic and ALS supervisor for Bell Ambulance in Milwaukee, and has been a paramedic for nearly 13 years. 

What You Need To Know

  • Bill Thompson has been a paramedic for 13 years
  • He said responding to calls for patients suffering cardiac arrest is a 'daily part of the job'
  • Because it is a regular part of the career, Thompson said many paramedics become numb to the trauma of the sometimes highly intense, life saving care
  • He said all paramedics deal with trauma differently, but there is a push for many paramedics and EMTs to take care of their mental health after those responses

Responding to patients suffering from cardiac arrest is pretty common.

“Too many to count, to be honest,” Thompson said. “Some days, it’s like a daily part of the job.”

It’s a part of the job that typically doesn’t have thousands of people in the stands and millions of people watching on tv. 

That was the case when Damar Hamlin of the Buffalo Bills collapsed on Monday Night Football. 

Hamlin was administered CPR, and a defibrillator was used to revive him on the field.

While not nearly as big a crowd, Thompson said he had around 2,000 people watching him work on a patient at a soccer game. 

That large audience can add a bit of stress for first responders. 

“As you tend to your patient, you get more into the rhythm of what you’re doing, and I think that stuff just kind of blurs into the background,” Thompson said. “You forget about the fact that you’re being watched by so many people because it literally becomes you and your crew, and that patient.”

There’s been a lot of talk about the trauma Hamlin’s teammates on the Bills, and his counterparts on the Cincinnati Bengals experienced as they watched one of their own needing life saving support on the field. 

That trauma isn’t exclusive to those players. 

The first responders who care for patients like Hamlin deal with the same trauma. 

It’s not easy to see someone fighting for their life on a near day-to-day basis. 

“There is some truth to the whole ‘becoming numb to it,’” Thompson said. “You view it as part of your job.”

They might be numb to it because it becomes routine, but Thomson said in recent years, there has been a push to focus on mental health, and companies are providing resources for their paramedics and first responders to get help when needed. 

“Everybody handles trauma differently, and just because we see it all the time doesn’t mean it doesn’t sometimes affect us as well,” Thompson said. 

Thompson said the athletic trainers and paramedics on scene who were able to revive Hamlin on the field before taking him to the hospital saved his life with their quick actions on CPR and using an automated external defibrillator, or AED. 

It’s something both he and his colleague Russell Johnston want to get more people get trained on. 

“You want good quality CPR as fast as possible, and also a defibrillator as fast as possible,” Johnston said. “That could be the difference between life and death.”

Click here to see where you can take CPR classes around the state of Wisconsin.