Life savers: From EMT to Paramedic

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“ Who of you guys know the ABCs of dealing with hazardous waste situations?” asked Bill, taking the last bite of his home made meal, and crumpling up the tin foil. “Armchair, Binoculars, and a Case of beer!”
By the end of our early dinner Bill, an EMT and firefighter in his thirties with wire rimmed glasses, had me and the other six or so EMTs doubled over in laughter from jokes and stories ranging from a mental institution neighboring his childhood home to police, or as they called them, “blue canaries.” Since police tended to rush into a scene if there were downed policemen around then it was a sign that the scene wasn’t safe for other first responders. If I hadn’t known Bill was an EMT training to be a paramedic he could’ve made a living as a comedian. As we ate, all the EMTs swapped stories about their experiences in the emergency room, burn ward, or ambulance rides. Each taking pride if theirs was the most gruesome and serious. Delivering children and asthma attacks were nothing, but cardiac arrests and head-on collisions were something to talk about. EMTs are a group of highly motivated individuals who work together as a team to save lives in emergency situations.
I had come to be sitting at this table through my grandfather, Dan. Dan is my mom’s father, a wiry older man with short hair and a thick white mustache. He has worked in many fields throughout his life, but has always been the guy who is calm and collected under fire. Not one to stop challenging himself, he has been in this intensive paramedic program for the last year after becoming an EMT.
Everyone sitting around the table were EMTs except for Roger the program director, and new director to be. EMT stands for emergency medical technician. They are trained to resp...

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...not people easily brought down.
After observing this group of people and their dedication to becoming a paramedic has whetted my interest and encouraged me to become involved. I want to have more than a run-of-the-mill knowledge of emergency care. However, for me, becoming adept at medical skills is for solely practical use, as I have no intentions of starting a profession in the medical field. Knowing more than CPR will certainly come in handy on the extended wilderness trips that I plan going on/leading in the future. While I am attending college in the coming years I want to become a certified EMT. I am going to Northland College and they even offer a WEMT ( Wilderness Emergency Medical Technician) program that I plan on completing. Wilderness medicine focuses on the treatment of injuries with minimal equipment and personnel, while also being in remote areas.

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