Since 1998 I have been in public service of some sort. I started out as a volunteer firefighter and EMT in the small bedroom community where I live. Then as an EMT on an ambulance in the city a little farther south from where I live. And now as an emergency dispatcher. I have taken emergency calls and responded to emergency calls. I have also taken and responded to calls that make you think “Hmmm… did NOT see that one coming”.
My plan is to take you, the reader, on a journey that I made over the last 25 years of my life. The good, the bad and hopefully the light hearted. This will not be all one post. No one has that kind of time to read all of that at once, so I will spread it out.
As a child I did not want to be a firefighter or a police officer. That was just not in my wheelhouse. I grew up in a small town in Wyoming, and you either got out by joining the military, or went to work in one of the mines in the area. Firefighters and emergency medical technicians were volunteer. No money to be made there. So i just did not think about it.
Fast forward to 1997, clear last century. Now living in a different state, a friend of mine who worked security where I worked at the time told me they needed EMT’s for the emergency response team. I figured, sure, why not I’ll give it a shot. The company paid for my training and I was off and running.
The class to get your EMT certification was intense for me. This was one of the few things, that up to that point in my life, did not come easily. I worked at it. And when I got that certificate, I was proud, and my wife was proud too. If she had been able to read the future she would have talked me out of going to that class.
Now I have this new set of skills that I rarely get to use. The plant where I worked was pretty safe, which is a good thing for sure. So I started to look for somewhere that I could use and perfect my newly acquired skills. The same fried told me about a volunteer fire department that was looking for people to run some calls. Sounded good to me. I filled out the application, and went and spoke to the chief. He asked me if I wanted to run medical calls and get a little experience. I naturally said yes, that was after all why I was there. He said, “Great, training is Thursday night, be here.”
So that Thursday I went to training and met all of the firefighters and got an idea of what I was signing up for. Then the real fun began.
That first training was pretty basic for me. They fitted me for turnout gear, that thick yellow suit firefighters wear in burning buildings. I was also given a pager. Not the kind where a number come across, but the kind that makes very loud, very high pitched noises when you are needed somewhere. I was given a tour of all of the vehicles, and where things were located on said vehicles. One of the vehicles I was shown was a white mini van with a radio in it and not much else. No medical or firefighting equipment. This was to be my van for the next few weeks that I could take home and respond to calls. I was not to talk on the radio, or go to calls lights and sirens. I was to respond, and do like I was told.
Friday night rolls around and I have my van. The tones (high pitched, very loud noises) go off for a traffic accident about a block from the apartment we were living in at the time. A car had run off the road and took a tumble down the hill about 100 feet or so. It was dark, it was raining, and it was cold. No one had gotten out of the car that I was aware of.
I arrived on scene with the more experienced crew. I was told to grab the backboard and head down to the car. I remember thinking that this was going to be bad. You can’t lose control over a car, go down a hill, and still be ok, right? When I got to the car it was just the driver. He was conscious and breathing. Had a bloody nose and was shaken up, but otherwise unhurt. We stabilized him the best we could and put him on the backboard to be taken to the hospital to be checked out. He most likely got out of the ER before the paperwork was finished.
I learned a few things that night. One, I was pretty sure I could do this job. Two, it’s almost never as bad at it looks where cars are involved. And three, people on backboards are heavier than expected.
That night set my life on a path that I never expected to follow.