By Eric DeArmitt, Volunteer Firefighter/Paramedic
I was born into a public safety family. My father has been involved in the fire department since a very young age and was an EMT. My mother was also an EMT with our hometown EMS service (both while still in high school).
When I turned 12, I joined the volunteer ambulance service as a junior attendant. I sucked up all the training and education that I could.
When I turned 16, I tested and passed my Pa. EMT-Basic course. At that point, being only a sophomore in high school and running calls with the ambulance, I realized that it was in my blood.
I earned the Community Service Scholarship when I was a senior in high school due to my very active involvement with the volunteer EMS and fire departments in my hometown.
After graduating high school, I went off to college and worked full-time as an EMT to pay my way through school. I then picked up a part-time job as an EMT as well. Going to college full-time and working full-time and part-time, I still managed to get my paramedic certification.
After graduating college, I felt a calling to use my skills in another fashion and joined the U.S. Army as a combat medic. I served in Afghanistan as a line medic with a light infantry unit, earning my combat medical badge for providing care under direct enemy fire.
Helping my fellow soldiers in their time of crisis and need, I felt a sense of completeness knowing that what I was doing for them would get them back home to see their families once again.
Being an EMS provider has always given me that “good feeling” inside. Being there for someone in their most trying times is what we should all be doing.
It doesn’t matter if it is that massive pile-up with major trauma and entrapment or the nursing home call at 2 a.m. because your patient just needed someone to listen; we are there to help.
The hardest part is knowing that there are people in my family who just don’t understand why I, at a moment’s notice, will drop whatever I am doing and sacrifice my time with them to help someone in need. Two reasons:
- If I didn’t do it, there might not be someone else who would.
- I hope that if someone in my family were in need, a kindhearted person would help them.