By EMS1 Staff
NEW CONCORD, Ohio — A veteran paramedic with 40 years of experience hopes to return to the EMS industry after his hip heals from surgery.
Zanesville Times Recorder reported that paramedic David Blackstone, 83, was the oldest paramedic in Muskingum County until he had to retire earlier this year due to hip surgery.
“I carried mail in New Concord for 30 years and had a lot of time to think while I was walking around,” Blackstone said. “It was sometime in the late 1970s when I got the idea of what I would do if I came upon someone who was down and needed medical attention. I thought about that pretty hard for the next couple of weeks and it bothered me.”
Blackstone began his EMS career after seeing an ad for a first responder course.
“I think the good Lord wanted me to help people,” he said.
When Blackstone graduated from training, the ambulances were operated by funeral homes.
“If you had a medical emergency, the squad would pick you up and you either went to the hospital or to the funeral home,” Blackstone said. “When they put the interstates through, the laws changed and there had to be an ambulance at every town the interstate went through.”
Blackstone worked as a trainer after graduating through the ranks and becoming a paramedic by 1993.
“I’ve trained a lot of EMTs,” he said. “I graduated two classes a year since 1990, that’s quite a few people.”
After retiring from the postal service in 2000, Blackstone stayed in the EMS industry as a paramedic and instructor, despite several setbacks that could have ended his career.
“I tore a rotator cuff lifting a patient, then I was diagnosed with prostate cancer, then my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer, and around the same time our house burned down,” Blackstone said. “It was a tough time, but I kept on going.”
Blackstone was finally forced into retirement last November when he began experiencing hip pain.
“I had my operation on May 2, and I am still trying to heal three weeks later,” he said.
EMS agencies from several counties decided to honor Blackstone for his decades of service, and they also created the David Blackstone Appreciation Fund to help with hospital bills.
“I love the people I have worked with over the years, I have made a lot of great friends every place I worked,” Blackstone said. “I just can’t keep up with the young ones anymore, I try but I just can’t do it.”
Blackstone hopes to return to the EMS industry when his hip heals, but said he will enjoy working on his farm when the time comes to slow down.
“There’s a lot I can do around here,” Blackstone said.
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