Fooey to that last comment. Reynolds, your post was great and you sound far from cynical. Having been there & done that for many years I know what you mean both about getting the hair off the ambu bag (those things have such a weirdly sticky texture), and about the case being a good and proper job. I don't think it's that we are glad when people suffer but that we are glad to have the chance to do the work we are trained to do. It's a worldwide problem that EMTs and paramedic and ambulance officers are trained for X and instead spend their shifts doing Y, and meanwhile management gets twitchy about response times but those on the road resent being expected to speed to yet another cold in the head. Morale, anyone?