I'm not a first responder, but being a prosecutor is pretty emotionally draining at times. One time a victim gave me a thank you card after sentencing (vehicular homicide case, she had life altering injuries, her friend was killed, dumb teenager wasn't even old enough to drink when he decided to drag race on the freeway at multiple times the BAC limit). It was an intensely emotional case for all involved.

It sounds like such a small thing, but really, I still have that card years later, and it still makes me smile every time I see it. I won a lot of big trial victories and put a lot of very bad people away for a very long time, and getting that thank you card slipped discretely to me as she hobbled out of the courtroom is still probably number one work related memory.