MACON, Ga. — They’re the people who show up when someone’s life hangs in the balance — any given day can be one of tragedy or triumph. WGXA looked into what a day in the life of a first reponder in middle Georgia is really like.
“What you see in TV is nothing that compares to real life,” says Michael Johstono of Paramedic Community Ambulance.
“I try not to take any of it for granted and I am extremely proud to wake up every morning and come to work,” said Lawrence Seeger, a Flight Paramedic for the Air Evac Lifeteam in Perry. “I put this uniform on because it is something that I have always wanted to do.”
Seeger described how his day starts.
“We have to go out and we have to check off the aircraft,” he said. “We have to make sure that all of the supplies and all of the medications are where they are supposed to be, and the quantity that is supposed to be there.”
After checking off online duties and paperwork, he waits for that call to come in.
“Some days we don’t fly at all,” Seeger said. “Some days we do three and four flights.”
One call sticks out in his mind.
“I was flying in Dublin. We had a gentleman — a younger guy probably in his early 20s — he was shot multiple times,” Seeger says. “Two of those were in his face. That’s why it sticks out, because not a lot of people survive shots to head.”
Seeger says he had to be on his A-game that day– just like every day.
“ I remember him being in the ambulance. He was still awake,” he said. “He was still very much alert, and all he kept saying was ‘Don’t let me die.’ We have some medicine in the aircraft. I said, ‘Don’t worry, you are going to take a nap for a little bit.’ And he says, ‘Just don’t let me die.’ And I’m like, ‘Not today.’”
Johstono, a retired firefighter turn paramedic, says his life’s purpose is and always has been public service. He responds to between 5-10 calls each day for community ambulance.
“I basically go by the ABC’s — airway, breathing and circulation,” he said. “If any of those three areas are compromised with my patient, then those are the kind of calls that I like to kind of step up and say, ‘Let’s get this patient to the hospital because they are in a life threatening emergency.’”
Liana Rogers, an EMS coordinator with Coliseum Health System, says life threatening emergencies can carry a heavy burden.
“Anytime we lose a patient, it takes a toll on us as well,” Rogers said. “We lean on each other to make sure that we go through that little grieving process as well and get ready for the next call. We are not given a lot time to go through that process.”
In spite of it all, they all know they’ve had a good day when
“As long as nobody died, as long as I was able to do the best that I am trained to do with my knowledge and my skills to take care of the patient that I am involved with and make family feel comfortable, at the end of the shift I feel good,” Johstono said.
“We all understand that we have decided to take on a profession that is inherently dangerous,” Seeger said. “We get into a helicopter and we fly all over the state. And the end of a good day is when we all can do that in the same fashion that we came.”
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