Life is not always about men’s style for me although much of my time is spent dealing with the subject. One of my other meaningful and exciting activities is volunteering as an EMT. I have spoken briefly on the subject before but it was not in a necessarily relevant line of discussion to the blog. But now since I am back home I have been spending more of my time at the station and on duty so I think I will speak on the subject more frequently. Additionally, I think now is a good time to speak on the subject as events over the past few weeks in Boston and Texas have yet again proven the importance of emergency personnel in saving lives.
Yesterday we had a vehicle rescue drill (keyword drill, see photo above to see what the cars looked like after) which involved extricating 4 patients from 2 motor vehicles (a 5th was pronounced dead and a 6th charged with a DUI). The drill was conducted in front of a few hundred high school students, one of those scared straight type of things; thus the DUI charge. As the firemen sawed out the windshields and cut through the frames of the cars with the Jaws of Life in order to remove the roofs of the cars I could tell by looking at some of the students faces that an impact was being made.
But anyway, for calls like that it often becomes necessary for the EMTs and paramedics to don turnout gear (pictured below) in order to protect themselves from any number of hazards (fire, glass, metal, other cars etc). So there I was in my turnout gear in the back of a car holding C-spine on a pt while the firemen were breaking glass and tearing off doors. It was a damn good day. But it will be a sad day if and when I have to use those skills in real life and not in a drill. Life is not all about suits and ties…
-JLJ
Justin, just wanted to commend you on volunteering. I’ve considered taking EMT training to make myself useful in bad situations.
Also, I saw you on Raphael’s Youtube channel and you came across as a soft-spoken and genuinely pleasant person. I think it’s easy sometimes to get the wrong impression of a person if you rely solely on photos and text, which is what I think a lot of commenters do. You should consider doing more videos.
Rich,
Thank you for the kind words. The skillset obtained from taking the EMT course and subsequent experience in the field is a very practical knowledge set. There have been a number of times when not on duty that I have been able to help those in need of medical attention. You never know when something will come up. Regarding the videos, thank you for watching. I’m working on putting some more videos together, I actually have one where I am interviewing Raphael. Thank you for the encouragement and nice words on that, sometimes I do come across as rigid in the posts (which is fine), but the video definitely shows a more accurate representation of me, thank you again.
-Justin