Paramedics an integral part of emergency care

Evan Forbes has been a paramedic in Kawartha Lakes for 12 years, but he didn’t fully understand what a paramedic was as a teenager. “I had an anatomy and physiology teacher in high school who was a paramedic, and I didn’t even know that was a job,” he said.

Kevin Sheahan got into the field through his family. “My dad was a paramedic in Toronto. My mom was a nurse, so it just kind of came natural.”

There are three different levels of paramedics, advanced care, primary care, and critical care. Often the advanced and primary care paramedics work together. Critical care paramedics are more commonly found in bigger cities or as part of the Ornge team. “So, (advanced care) get a few different skills, different medications that we can give predominantly, like cardiac resuscitation medications,” Forbes, an advanced care paramedic, said. They are also allowed to shock hearts back to normal, but primary care paramedics, like Sheahan, cannot.

While TV shows have altered how the public views the work paramedics do, Sheahan said the job is not full of those exciting calls that shows often portray. “The majority of our calls are…the little old lady that lives by herself,” and perhaps had a fall. “I would say 75 per cent of our calls are almost kind of the same.”

Forbes adds that in this area a lot of their calls come from nursing homes. “Grandma or grandpa has pneumonia. Obviously, they can’t diagnose and do that stuff in a nursing home, so they have to go and have to be assessed. So, we end up transporting a lot of them (to the hospital).”

The two have also found that a lot of the public doesn’t fully grasp the amount of work they do. “I think a lot of the public’s perception of us is still just that we show up, we put somebody in the ambulance, and we drive them to the hospital,” Forbes said.

Sheahan said that was once what the job looked like, but it’s evolved in the 30 years he’s been on duty. Back when he first started “we gave you a blanket, we gave some oxygen, and we went to the hospital. And now we’re carrying all these medications.”

Today, paramedics have a higher level of education and skills, and they are equipped with the same medications doctors have access to in the ER. In an ambulance, paramedics have a bag with 32 different drugs for all kinds of treatments, including ketamine, fentanyl, and morphine.

When on a call, “we’re taking our monitor in, we’re taking our medication bag, and then we have our airway bag,” Sheahan said. All of the equipment is upwards of 100 pounds.

They find that the public is often good to them, “they do what we ask them to do. They stay out of the way. And they’re understanding too,” Forbes said.

However, there are some things that the public can do to make their jobs easier. They often find that drivers stopped at red lights try to move out of their way, however, it makes it harder for them to get where they need to be. “I don’t understand why people decide to (pull to) the right.”

That’s what you’re supposed to do when you’re driving, but when already stopped at a light, the best thing to do is stay put, he says.

Sheahan adds that at a red light, ambulances can move however they need to. “I’m allowed to drive on the wrong side of the road if I’ve got my lights on, but people will drive through red lights. They’ll pull into intersections, all kinds of stuff.”

Another issue they deal with are calls that aren’t emergencies. “People call an ambulance because they feel that they’ll get in quicker in the emerge. We hear it a lot of time where, ‘oh, well, I’ve called you because I want to get in quicker,’” Forbes said. Even if a patient arrives via ambulance, they still get triaged at the hospital, meaning they’ll be seen in the same time they would’ve been seen without an ambulance.

Due to this, 911 operators are asking more questions to those calling, to help assess how serious the situation is.

Despite these obstacles, Forbes and Sheahan love their jobs, and the rewarding feeling that comes with saving lives.

One little girl who was helped by Sheahan still calls him from time to time. “Her mom texts me, just to tell me how she’s doing, which is amazing,” Sheahan said.