By Gregory Lopes
The Washington Times
Copyright 2006 The Washington Times LLC
All Rights Reserved
Claude Ford doesn’t charge into burning buildings, deliver babies or breathe life into dying Washingtonians anymore.
He’s training the next generation of heroes.
Mr. Ford, a Montgomery County native, is the head instructor at the D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services Training Academy.
“If it was not for him, the training program would be in the tubes,” said Fire Chief Alfred Jeffery, adding: “When he took it over, he streamlined the program, focused it, made sure there will be more attention on patient care.”
The emergency medical personnel unit in the District is on the rebound after facing sharp criticism over the death of New York Times journalist David Rosenbaum. He died from injuries suffered during a robbery in Northwest Washington in January.
An investigation into the incident by the D.C. inspector general found a string of failures by the Fire and EMS agency.
“We are on the road to becoming one of the top emergency medical technician programs in the country because of what [Mr. Ford] does,” Chief Jeffery said.
Mr. Ford started early on the road to becoming an emergency medical technician and a firefighter. During a horse-riding lesson as a small child, he shattered his knee cap, suffering an open fracture.
He then discovered his calling as paramedics from the Hillandale Volunteer Fire Department adroitly stabilized the leg with nothing more than a pillow and a few bandages.
“I thought that what they did was incredible,” he said. “I had an idea at that point that I wanted to do that.”
Defying his parents, he pursued a career in emergency medical services and firefighting.
“In high school, I used to sneak out of the house at night to fulfill my duty with the Wheaton Volunteer Rescue Squad,” he said.
After resisting the urge to quit college and return to Montgomery County, where in the 1970s the county was making a push for minority firefighters, Mr. Ford earned his degree from Morehouse College and eventually joined the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Rescue Squad. Soon after, he took on the dual role of a D.C. emergency medical technician and firefighter.
As a paramedic, he has experienced the human condition at its most inspiring and its most humbling.
“I’ve delivered six babies and given cardiopulmonary resuscitation to a man that died,” he said. “I’ve seen the spectrum of life.”
Mr. Ford says that whether he is training firefighters or EMS personnel, each person has to possess a resiliency and determination to face those types of triumphant and agonizing experiences.
“I was sick for three days; I couldn’t eat or sleep after that man died,” he said. “It was really disturbing, but in this job, there has to be a faith that your absolute best is all you can offer. The ultimate decision on the outcome is not yours. You’re concentrating on helping people.”
Imparting that brand of wisdom lies at the heart of Mr. Ford’s teaching style. There are a multitude of skills each member of the cadet class in the training institute must learn to deliver the necessary treatment.
For instance, when a cadet finishes the training program, he or she will have the skills to insert an intravenous line to stabilize a person going into shock or administer Narcan, the most common drug used to treat drug overdoses.
But it is determination and resiliency, Mr. Ford says, that allow a firefighter to rush into a burning building or recover after treating a stroke victim who does not make it.
“That’s why my job is so important,” he said. “I love getting in front of the classroom and setting the thought process in motion, but while teaching the skills and book smarts, you have to interlace the intangibles.”
After 12 years at the training academy, Mr. Ford knows that his heart rate isn’t going to get revved up while in an ambulance preparing to administer CPR; rather, his energy comes from preparing students to respond to medical emergencies.
“The students want to be here; it’s not something that everybody wants to do. Not everybody can go into a falling building; it’s a gift,” he said. “They are the ones going out there and helping people. I’ve seen my students rewarded for their job with the bronze bar for valor. That is worth getting up for.”