About > Introspection About Involvement in EMS
This originally appeared in the Winter 2000 edition of the NCEMSF Newsletter
Thanksgiving weekend this year was a time for reminiscing for me. I recounted memories of my past as I complied with the parental mandate to finally clean out the closet of my long-vacated childhood room. Papers from as far back as first grade had been stashed away in nondescript cardboard boxes piled one upon the other.
Despite twenty years passing between the time I originally did these assignments and stumbling upon them again, I clearly recalled some of them as if I had done them yesterday. Old composition books, spelling assignments, and elementary school art projects harkened to a simpler time in my life.
Even at the tender age of eight, I had made a career choice. I wanted to be a radiologist. My second choice was paramedic. A distant third choice was a CPA, just like my father. In a homework assignment I had carefully outlined the benefits and pitfalls of each of the three chosen professions. Everything I knew about my second choice (paramedic) came from a Cub Scout field trip to the local ambulance squad. I can clearly recall this visit. The paramedic who hosted us showed us all of the equipment he used to save lives including a defibrillator, endotracheal tubes, and a BVM -- I was enthralled.
Despite my initial fascination with the emergency medical service, its allure slowly faded. By the time I was eleven, the idea of being a career EMT or paramedic was just a distant memory, though my top career choice was still radiologist.
Fast-forward ten years to my freshman year at Ursinus College. On a whim I enrolled in an American Red Cross first aid course taught by two fellow Ursinus students. Once the course started, four of us in the class couldn’t get enough. We were hungry for more training and eager to move on to the next big step: EMT.
The next semester we all enrolled in the EMT class taught twenty minutes away at the county community college. Two nights a week for an entire semester we soaked up all of the EMS knowledge that our instructor could provide. In that EMT class, the four of us were affectionately known as “the college bunch,” which distinguished us from the high school students, housewives, and other community members enrolled in the class. That same core group of Ursinus EMTs, along with one of our inspirational first aid instructors, became the driving force for the founding of Ursinus’ Student Emergency Response Volunteers (SERV), which continues to serve the members of that campus community.
Fast-forward another ten years to the present. While I am not a career paramedic, I am a volunteer EMT, which comes close to my second childhood career choice. My dream of being a radiologist was never realized. This was reiterated at my ten-year high school reunion, which was also during the same Thanksgiving weekend. One of my elementary school classmates attending the reunion remembered my early intentions of being a radiologist. I responded to his query simply: “No, I’m not a radiologist. I am a Ph.D. chemist, but you can still call me Dr. Savett if you’d like.”
After nearly a decade of service in emergency medical services, I’m still an EMT, and can’t imagine my life without some involvement in EMS. Accordingly, I believe that the EMS “bug” bit me twenty years ago during our Cub Scout visit to our community ambulance. I doubt one could one make a better case for the importance community outreach in emergency medical services. Though, you never know how long it’s going to be until the people you touch in your outreach realize what you’ve done for them.
