While checking the DT4EMS business Post Office Box for mail, I found a letter and immediately noticed it had no return address on the envelope. At first I thought it was going to be some form of junk mail. When I opened the letter and began to read it, I found myself scratching my head in confusion. I really didn’t know what to make of it.
I made it back to my office, took a picture of it and posted it on my Facebook page. Within a few minutes people started pointing out what I had already started to consider, this letter was a plea… an anonymous plea that is, for help. You may wonder “How can a letter that contains so little, say that much?” Let me explain.
Over the last few years I have had countless emails that start with something along the lines of “Please don’t tell anyone but…” or ” I need to tell you, but please don’t share” etc. This letter was a in a completely different form of an anonymity attempt. With an email, I can see who sent it. I can see if I know them from my personal page, DT4EMS Facebook page, Twitter account, or other forms of social media. Of the any of the email pleas for assistance I receive, I have never met the person in any form.
This letter asks about trying to get training to an area in Texas, but the letter was mailed from California. The ironic thing was, I was just in the area just prior to receiving the letter. Is that a coincidence? I’m not sure. I am confident the letter is like the emails I receive. It is a reaching out of sorts, a plea for help.
This letter, like the emails, proves the problems rooted deep in the culture of medicine. Violence in medicine is the dirty little secret. It happens, everyone KNOWS it does, yet few wish to acknowledge it. Fear of ridicule by peers, and some form of retribution by administration( for wishing to press criminal charges) seems to be the leading culprits for such little acknowledgement.
While we within the DT4EMS family have made great strides in raising awareness of this nastiness-kept-quite violence issue, there is still much more that needs to be done. In every location where the topic of violence is allowed to be discussed openly, without fear of peer ridicule or administrative retribution, we witness culture change.
The emails and private messages I receive on social media would wear heavily on anyone with a heart. They have become my burden. I have chosen to accept the challenge placed before me, but I am getting tired. It is exhausting trying to move a mountain one spoonful at a time. While progress is being made, it is oh so very slow.
You can see and read the letter for yourself. You can form your own opinion. One has to ask, why would someone take the time to type a letter, fail to place a return address on an envelope, ask for a class in one location, yet mail the letter from another, and leave no form of contact information? If you could see the emails in my inbox… you would come to the same conclusion I already have.
And to the Author of this letter… Help is coming, hope is coming, DT4EMS is coming.
