Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, July 19, 2023 -- SEVEN
In Your Community: EMTs are on call to save lives
-Continued from PAGE ONE
Health district EMS responder Frank Iovino helps a recently-intubated training dummy
breathe during an EMT refresher course in Heppner. -Photo by Andrea Di Salvo
Volunteers or not, they
work long hours. Mor-
row County Health District
has 12-hour day and night
shifts, 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. and
vice versa. He adds that it’s
not uncommon to have 24-
or 48-hour work shifts, with
all kinds of combinations
of days on and off—two
on followed by two off, for
example. While the shifts
are long, he explains, EMS
workers also need enough
time to decompress from
the stress of the job.
While the shifts may
seem crazy to those outside
the field, most EMS work-
ers are fine with them.
“I wouldn’t want to
work nine to five,” says
Iovino.
“Even though they
might be a lot of hours, it
doesn’t always feel like a
lot of hours,” agrees Martin.
Iovino adds that, with
such long shifts, people of-
ten misunderstand the role
of EMS and think they’re
not working when they’re
no responding to a call.
“You’re not paying us
to sleep at night. You’re
paying us for our ability to
respond,” says Iovino.
Martin adds that the
average career length for an
EMT is less than five years.
That can be for reasons that
vary from back injury from
heavy lifting to the high
mental stress caused by
some types of calls.
“It requires coping
skills,” he says.
At the same time, he
recalls the old saying that
if you are doing something
you love, you never work a
day in your life.
“That is everybody in
this field,” he says.
There are two EMS
providers on every shift at
the health district. While
every shift is unpredict-
able by nature, Martin says
there are certain things
that should be done on
every single shift, such as
checking the ambulance,
the equipment, and any
controlled substances they
have in stock.
A lot of EMS workers
carry additional respon-
sibilities. For instance, a
lead position at each sta-
tion—Heppner, Irrigon and
Boardman—is in charge of
ordering supplies, manag-
ing the schedule and filling
sick shifts. Martin is the
one who makes sure all the
paramedics and EMTs have
enough training opportuni-
ties to meet or exceed re-
certification requirements.
While the training is
extensive, Martin says the
biggest factor for a suc-
cessful EMT or paramedic
has nothing to do with ed-
ucation.
“This is far more of a
personality type of a job
than it is an education or
experience thing,” he says.
“The nice thing about this
job is that anybody can
do it. Everyone can do the
job. Not everyone has the
personality for it.”
“If you have the per-
sonality, we can train you,”
he adds. “You need to have
a strong enough personality
that you can walk into a
chaotic situation and either
take control or remain calm
enough to take direction.”
He says that the major-
ity of people in emergency
medical services have some
level of type-A personality.
More advanced providers
are often asked to take
control of an emergency sit-
uation. That ability to take
control might come natural-
ly or it might be something
someone has to develop
early in their career.
“That first year as an
EMT, you really figure
things out,” he says. “If you
can stay calm in the middle
of chaos, you at least have
the potential to thrive in
this field.”
“You kind of have to
be that duck,” Iovino says.
“Calm on the surface but
paddling as fast as you can
underneath.”
“We work long hours
in stressful situations, often
in dangerous situations. I
need to know I can trust
my coworkers not only with
the patient’s life but with
mine,” Martin adds.
Another important
piece of the puzzle is the
equipment, much of it car-
ried in the back of an am-
bulance. When it comes
to what they pack into the
ambulance or a trauma kit,
space is at a premium.
“Everything has a job,”
says Martin.
Ambulance equipment
includes everything from
a cardiac monitor to med-
ication.
“Everything an emer-
gency room can do in the
first 45 minutes can be done
in the back of an ambulance
if there’s a paramedic on
board,” he says.
The cardiac monitor
measures the patient’s heart
rhythm, oxygen and carbon
dioxide levels, and blood
pressure. There’s an AED
or manual defibrillator, as
well as a pacemaker for if
the heart isn’t beating fast
enough. Twelve leads on a
patient’s heart provide not
only the heartrate, but the
path electricity travels to
get there.
Aside from a lot of
equipment for the heart,
Martin says, there’s also
equipment for breathing
and traumatic injuries. The
ambulance also carries with
it medications to make
people comfortable or treat
life-threatening illnesses,
as well as equipment for
IV (intravenous) fluids or
IO (intraosseous) infusion.
IO infusion allows
EMS staff to inject med-
ications, fluids or blood
products directly into the
marrow of a bone.
In Oregon, EMS pro-
viders can conduct rapid
sequence intubation (RSI),
allowing them to sedate,
paralyze and insert a breath-
ing tube into a patient who’s
struggling to breathe.
“It’s a lot easier to take
over control than to play
catch-up if someone stops
breathing,” says Martin,
adding that RSI isn’t an
option everywhere. “In
emergency medicine there
are different things we do
in the Pacific Northwest
that are unique to the area,
and the RSI is one of them.”
“Across the U.S., there
a patchwork of protocols,”
adds Iovino.
Martin admits it can be
a stressful occupation. A lot
of EMS providers struggle
with extreme stress, and he
says it’s important for all
of them to remember that
they didn’t cause what-
ever catastrophe they’re
responding to.
“We’re called to help.
We didn’t cause the prob-
lem,” he says. “There
wasn’t anything we did
to affect it to happen, but
there’s a lot we can do to
help, and that’s what we’re
there for.”
He says a lot of EMTs
and paramedics find dif-
ferent ways to cope or de-
compress outside of work,
many of which require
them to hyper-focus and
let the rest of the stress
fade away. Martin says he
builds motorcycles, while
others build cars or reno-
vate houses.
“I know several peo-
ple who are certified sky
divers,” he says. “Lots of
different ways to cope.”
Iovino says he unplugs
when he clocks out. He ex-
plains that when people first
start working in emergency
systems, they’re excited,
and many leave their pagers
on all the time, even when
off duty.
“When I’m off, I’m
off,” he says, adding that
he enjoys riding dirt bikes
or camping with his family.
“Nothing too extreme.
“I know some guys
who like the high-octane
stuff,” he adds. “I have a
life outside of that.”
Iovino also says EMTs
can learn from other peo-
ple’s mistakes, watching
them burn themselves out
or make poor choices in
how to decompress.
However, Martin says
that not every moment con-
tains extreme stress. Emer-
gency response systems
requires a lot of training
and a lot of waiting, inter-
spersed with moments of
extreme stress.
“But there’s a lot of
day-to-day, non-exciting
things that happen every
day,” he says.
Even 911 calls, while
always carrying the po-
tential for tragedy, aren’t
always that bad.
“The vast majority
of the time when people
call 911, it’s to hold some-
one’s hand because they’re
scared, because they don’t
know what to do,” he says.
At the same time, Mar-
tin says that one of the
absolute worst questions
they get asked is, “What is
the worst thing you’ve ever
seen?”
“People don’t mean it
to be a bad thing, but you’re
asking us to relive the worst
thing we’ve ever seen. We
start to relive really terrible
events,” he says.
However, if you want
to ask EMTs about their
most interesting experienc-
es, they’ll probably have
plenty to say. Both Martin
and Iovino have worked in
places outside of Morrow
County; Martin’s career
took him to Los Angeles
for a while, as well as nine
months in Las Vegas.
He recalls the time in
Los Angeles when a man
high on methamphetamine
harmed himself, and para-
medics had to chase him
for half an hour trying to
treat him. When they caught
up to him, he was on a
three-story building with no
obvious roof access. They
had to call the fire depart-
ment to get him down.
Martin says the man
woke up in the intensive
care unit a couple of days
later with no memory of
how he got there.
Martin’s experiences
have ranged from going to
crime scenes to pronounce
people dead to delivering
babies.
“I delivered a set of
twins that had known heart
problems. Six months later,
I was taking one twin and
the mom to their last cardiac
surgery,” he recalls.
They also see the re-
sults of what could be
called sheer stupidity. For
instance, he once treated a
paraglider who crashed into
a cliff face.
“A month later, he did
it again,” says Martin.
And, of course, there’s
always a chance of wildlife
when working in rural areas
like Morrow County.
“I had a guy get bit by
a rattlesnake,” says Martin,
adding that the man cap-
tured the snake so he could
show it off. “He wanted to
show me, and it got loose in
the back of the ambulance.
“I screamed like a lit-
tle girl, and we were not
friends after that.”
Chaos or calm, terror
or comedy, Martin says the
bottom line is that EMTs
are there because they want
to help.
“Ultimately, when peo-
ple call, we’re the type
of people who want to
be called. We want to be
there,” Martin says. “Some
people feel bad about call-
ing. We don’t’ feel bad
about going.”
ALL NEWS AND ADVERTISEMENT DEADLINE:
MONDAYS AT 5:00 P.M.
I r t h r I g h t
Birthright of Morrow County needs
volunteers for the following shifts:
Mondays 10:00 am to 1:00 pm
Mondays 1:00 to 3:00 pm
Thursdays 5:00 to 7:00 pm
Work once a week or
once a month.
Call 541-676-0530
if interested.
Elks Dinner
Thursday, July 20th
State Vice President Visitation
Please join us for dinner Pulled pork
sandwiches and dessert.
Dinner is at 6:30 pm - Lodge at 8:00 pm
HEPPNER ELKS 358
"WHERE FRIENDS MEET"
541-676-9181 142 N MAIN ST
Heppner Les Schwab would like to congratulate The District 3,
8-10 year old Little League All Stars for making it to State !
This Saturday in La Grande
6-PM
Off to state !!!!!
Left to Right players: Urijah Wedding, Jeffery Wilcox, Landry James, Sonny Matheny, Casyn Adams,
Lucas Matheny, Jackson Allen, Kason Botefuhr, Cooper Patterson, Kaden Cline, Levi Williams, Keller
Sweeney. Coaches Left to Right: Austin Allen, Stefan Matheny, Nate James
124 N. MAIN STREET
HEPPNER OR (541) 676-9481