Hero’s Guilt
A hero’s guilt for not being able to do more…
The story of Sir Nicholas Winton highlighted in a 1988 BBC program caused me to think about the courageous people in particular U.S. first responders who have guilt and depression after they commit heroic acts in the face of traumatic events.
Sir Winton saved Jewish Czechoslovakian children in 1938 from Nazi concentration camps. Winton spent the 50 years since suffering from guilt for not being able to save more children. In the BBC program, unbeknownst to him, Winton was invited to a theater that was filled with the people he rescued and their families. His scrapbook contained the pictures and biographical information on the children that he rescued. It aided in contacting them and ensuring they were present for the filming of the BBC program so they could thank Sir Winton for their lives.
Our nations first responders regularly commit acts of heroism responding to traumatic events that despite their best efforts often end up in the death or serious injury of innocent people. What are we as a nation doing to aid the first responders in coping with these experiences and their post traumatic stress and guilt.
A photograph that has haunted and inspired me for years depicted firefighter Chris Fields carrying victim Baylee Almon’s tiny body out of the rubble of the Murrah Federal Building that was bombed on April 19, 1995 killing 168 people including 20 children. Today Chris Fields is a Captain for the Oklahoma Fire Department and he admits that he suffered from depression and PTSD for years after the bombing like many of the first responders and survivors. Due to the counselling that he received, the support from his family and the department he learned to cope with his guilt and PTSD.
Recently, PTSD has received much attention with the thousands of returning veterans from the various theaters of war however many of our first responders must suffer in silence because of societies failure to adequately provide support for the men and women who protect our communities every day. Society expects that first responders cope with traumatic events and then continue their lives without these events influencing them in any way.
