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Wishing On A
Star
Why a well designed backyard is
vital to your career interests
BY MARTY NEIDEFFER
Code 3 Magazine is a
lifestyle publication for first
responders, devoted to exploring
issues important to the men and
women who serve in law
enforcement, fire and medical
services and the military, both
at work and away from it. This
edition includes our first
Summer Backyard Special Section.
In it, interior design writer
Karen Johnson explains what it
takes to create a great backyard
retreat, and the editors profile
the amazing home getaways of
some Code 3 readers.
You won’t find a Summer Backyard
Special Section in many other
magazines aimed at first
responders. I am not sure why
that is, backyards playing the
essential roles in our careers
that they do. Let me explain.
The sheriff’s office I work for
provides police services to our
county hospital and trauma
center. Deputies assigned there
perform many duties, one of
which is to meet ambulances
transporting gunshot wound
victims and escort the crews and
victims from the parking lot
into the trauma room. Deputies
remain tucked away in a corner
of the room as the trauma team
labors to try and save the
victim’s life. Deputies do this
as a security measure (in the
event a shooter decides to come
finish the job) and for
evidentiary purposes. When a
victim dies, deputies maintain
custody of the body until the
coroner’s investigators come to
pick it up.
I was assigned to the hospital
police services early in my
career. About two days after
showing up, I responded to my
first “GSW” detail. My partner
and I met the ambulance in the
parking lot where the crew
rolled out a male victim about
20 years old. The man had an
oxygen mask strapped on and he
was encircled by hardworking
medics, but I saw his face. He
was very much alive. His eyes
were racing back and forth, and
he looked scared as hell.
We hurried the victim to the
trauma room and took up our
places in the corner. About a
dozen doctors and nurses set
about trying to save this man’s
life. As the man began to slip
from this world, the team tried
one last-ditch procedure to save
him. They sliced him open from
the middle of his chest to the
middle of his back, cut away
muscles and tendons and used a
metal device with a crank to pry
open his ribs. A doctor reached
into the man’s body, took hold
of his heart and began to pump
it manually.
Despite these extraordinary
efforts, the man died. There
were a few deep sighs and the
trauma team began to file from
the room, regrouping for
whatever might come next. My
partner, a nurse and I were left
in a room that turned quiet. On
the table was the body of a man
who 30 minutes ago was alive but
who was now dead and cut nearly
into two pieces. “There’s
something you don’t see every
day,” my partner said.
I saw many traumas roll through
that hospital, and a number of
traumas and tragedies since
going on to other assignments.
But that one put me on my heels
for a spell, as have a few
others.
 My
therapy at these times has been
the company of my wife and my
three daughters and the escape
of my home and, yes, my
backyard. I never had a backyard
as large or as tricked out as
those you’ll see in this issue
of Code 3 Magazine, but my wife
and I have kept our yards pretty
well maintained, and they’ve
always served as our family
retreat.
In fact, working in our backyard
was among our most enjoyable
(and affordable) activities,
especially when our girls were
small. Many were the summer
weekends we toiled under the hot
California sun, assisted by
family friends Bob Marley, Jimmy
Buffet and Don Julio (… And soon
it will render, That frozen
concoction that helps me hang
on). The kids would splash in
the sprinklers or climb on the
play structure my dad, brother
and uncle helped me build. My
wife and I would mow the lawn,
pull weeds, trim the neighbor’s
Oleanders off our fence and
enjoy being together. She looked
great in boots and work gloves.
Still does. During the warm
nights, we’d all crowd on the
hammock I received as a gift one
Father’s Day and watch the stars
come out.
“Star light, star bright, first
star I see tonight …”
“What do you wish for, Daddy?”
“This’ll do.”
Everybody needs their own place
to escape to from time to time.
Could be, from time to time,
first responders need one more
than others.
That’s an issue worth writing
about.
Marty Neideffer
J.D. Nelson
Publishers |
