A woman lay dying in the ambulance. Senior John Farrell waited for the paramedic to finish administering shocks and pumping epinephrine into her so he could jump in and perform CPR and chest compressions. Farrell and the medic continued this series, back and forth, shocks and CPR, until the woman regained consciousness. Farrell then rushed home, threw on a suit, and made it just in time to take pictures with his homecoming party.

This is all in a day’s work of an emergency medical technician (EMT). Several students at Walter Johnson including Megan Miles, Karen Sidransky, Jan Friis, Daniel Bieber, and Keith Stakes, voluntarily take time out of their week to work as EMTs, firefighters, and First Aid responders. The training is extensive, the shifts can cut into school and social time, but the rewards include an unforgettable experience and a growing demand for full-time paid EMTs and Paramedics in urban areas.

John Farrell, 17- “A lot of people underestimate you”

Senior

Wheaton Volunteer Rescue Squad

Farrell started EMTing in April of his junior year after hearing about it from longtime volunteer firefighter Senior Jan Friis.

“I knew it would look good for colleges,” said Farrell. To be a volunteer firefighter, Farrell had to reach the first level of EMT training, EMT-Basic. Firefighters have to have EMT-B training so they know what to do if they are put in a situation where they need to help an injured victim at the scene of a fire.

“The courses weren’t that hard. I took the crash courses which were about 4 weeks long for the fire fighter and EMT so even though they’re pretty fast with a lot of information, I think I got through both of them fine,” said Farrell.

Farrell comes in for his shift at 6 pm on Friday, spends the night at the station, and doesn’t leave until noon on Saturday for a total of 18 hours. In addition, every third Sunday Farrell works a mandatory 10-hour Sunday shift, which brings him to about 82 volunteer hours a month. At times Farrell regrets losing his Friday nights, but he does not change shifts because the Friday night crew has become a second family to him.

During a typical evening at the station, Farrell and the station volunteers check the units, watch movies, practice drills, and respond to any emergency calls they receive.

“In Wheaton we get a lot of drunk people, and we have a lot or regulars,” said Farrell, “so we know all their information so we don’t have to ask them any questions.”

On some emergency calls, Farrell’s age comes into play.

“A lot of people underestimate you. I had a call where this guy was bleeding and he didn’t tell me that he had AIDS and I found out later when we got to the hospital and he told the nurse. Maybe it wasn’t because I was a high school student but maybe he thought I wasn’t responsible enough to treat him. That could have definitely killed me.”

Although a lot of risk is involved in what Farrell does, he acknowledges that he is learning valuable skills that he can carry with him into whatever career he pursues.

“I carry around a pair of gloves and a CPR mask just in case. If someone goes down, I can help them out.”

Karen Sidransky, 17-“They’re very hard on you”

Cabin John Volunteer Fire Dept.

Senior Karen Sidransky decided to EMT because she was always interested in medicine and has aspirations to become a doctor.

“I definilty am planning by the time I get to college to become an EMT-I before I get into medical school,” said Sidransky matter-of-factly. Sidransky is currently going through EMT-B training and but will be through with it in a week. She’s been attending classes every Saturday and Sunday, 8 hours a day, for about three months.

“Basically I go to school seven days a week,” said Sidransky.

Sidransky often stresses about her school work.

“I think it’s difficult because my teachers can’t relate to the fact that you have this totally separate life…it’s hard finding a balance but it’s just something that you have to learn to deal with,” said Sidransky

Sidransky EMTs but does not do it jointly with volunteer firefighting like Farrell. She rides with the ambulance, and often receives calls for chest pains, sick people, and elderly people injured from falls. Sidransky once responded to a call for a woman who hadn’t gone to the bathroom in a week and didn’t know whether to go to the hospital or not.

Sidransky’s most memorable EMT experience occurred on an off-duty call.

“I was outside of school driving home and there was this car accident. I went over and started helping the lady and I was stabilizing her head. She was a spinal trauma and they had to fly her to Baltimore to the spinal trauma center so it was really good that I was there because she might have gotten up and walked around and then further injured herself and been paralyzed.”

As a girl and as a probationary member, Sidransky is a minority in her department. “They’re very hard on you. They don’t treat you very well until you earn they’re respect.”

Jan Friis, 18- Pager Slave

Rockville Volunteer Fire Dept. Station 3

“I’ve wanted to [become a volunteer firefighter] since my dad bought me a little toy fire truck when I was three,” said Senior Jan Friis. Friis started EMTing in December of his sophomore year, and is known at WJ for being very serious and devoted to what he does. Friis wants to reach EMT-Paramedic level because he says he will have a better chance of being hired. He often carries around his two way radio to hear what’s going on at the station. “You’re a slave to your pager,” said Friis of volunteering.

Friis, unlike the other EMTs, took two weeks out of school to go down to New Orleans and help with the Hurricane Katrina disaster relief. One of Friis’ friends at station 18 called him one night and told him that New Orleans was accepting volunteers from Maryland. Friis met the Fire level 2 and minimum staffing requirements. Friis was finally sent down to New Orleans with a wave of volunteers to replace others that needed to come home.

Friis experienced the scenes replayed over and over again on the news firsthand.

“Everybody, even the firefighters had guns. Everybody was shooting at each other. The whole situation was chaos. There were bodies in the streets; nobody was doing anything about them,” said Friis.

Friis and the rest of Maryland Task Force One lived in an abandoned convent. They were supposed to be responding to any house fires, but according to Friis, “The New York guys did their own thing so they would go instead of us.” They did respond to a fire at a Victorian house, but it had been burning for days and was basically lost. Friis also helped clean up firehouses and the fire fighters’ houses.

Friis has been called to many traumatic incidents over the past three years.

“One that sticks out the most [in my mind] was my first DOA (dead on arrival) a woman jumped off the 18th floor of her apartment building and bounced when she hit the ground, and her breast implants popped out, her lungs popped out, her insides squeezed out, and her legs were turned 180 degrees so her waist was facing backwards.” Friis seems to have become immune to these kinds of incidents. More recently, Friis responded to a call at American University. A male tenant had ripped his penis during intercourse and was bleeding.

“I went up to him and he was sitting in the lobby of the dorm with a towel over his waist and I said, ‘I’m going to hate doing this more than you’re going to hate me doing this but I’ve got to take a look at it.’” Friis said that everything was “awkwardly quiet,” but in the end, the victim was fine.

Friis has had to juggle school and volunteering with being a teenager for three years.

“When you join a fire department, everything else becomes second, including school. My grades dropped when I joined the fire department, but I’m getting a lot of experience. It becomes an obsession and that’s all you want to do.” Friis says that station 3 has become his home, as he is there 3-4 nights a week, in addition to an internship he does there and frequent meetings.

“I just spend a lot of time there. I’d rather be there than my house.”