Paramedics say they want people to remember that it's not just members of the military that suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder.
About half a dozen Ottawa paramedics are on stress leave, including 30-year paramedic Sean Conlon.
"I can't watch anybody else die," he said. "I've seen way too much, just way too much."
Conlon said a call to an infant he couldn't save stands out.
"It was so hard on me that I ended up crying and crying," he said. "They gave me the day off and said come back tomorrow."
It's estimated that as many as one quarter of all front-line workers (which also includes police and firefighters) are suffering from PTSD.
John Robertson works with a trauma organization that's launched a television ad campaign to bring awareness to the issue.
"Talking through an event that has affected a person is not a sign of weakness," he said. "In fact, it takes more guts to be honest and say ‘you know what, that one knocked me off my rails, I need help.'"
Ottawa paramedics said they have crisis teams to help their workers, but nothing can prepare you to consistently see death.
"My anatomy is no different from you in preparing myself to see a child die, or what can happen to the human body in a terrible accident," said Brian Morris with Ottawa paramedics.
"For each child, father, mother, brother that I've seen die, it's all taken a piece of me," Conlon said.
Ontario's ombudsman is looking into this issue; a report on stress amongst OPP officers is expected to be released in 2012.
With a report from CTV Ottawa's Joanne Schnurr
