November 18, 2024 • 30 mins
Join Robbie, a paramedic who faced the frontlines during the COVID-19 pandemic in Tampa, as he shares his journey through trauma, crisis, and unexpected moments of kindness. Amidst the chaos of overwhelmed healthcare systems, Robbie reflects on the immense pressure first responders faced, highlighting the importance of mental health and the need for strong support networks.
He also offers insights into balancing family life with the demands of working on “alarm time.” This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in the challenges of paramedics and the dedication of first responders.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Everyone has a story.
They just don't always have aplace to share it.
Welcome to I Need Blue, thepodcast about to take you on an
(00:22):
extraordinary journey whereprofound narratives come to life
, one captivating episode at atime.
I'm your host, jennifer Lee,and I founded this podcast
because I know there is healingand sharing.
Each story you will hear sharedon this podcast is a testament
to our collective strength,innate ability to transform in
(00:45):
the incredible power of healing.
Please remember you are neveralone.
Please visit and share mywebsite with those seeking
connection and inspirationwwwineedbluenet.
Thank you, char Good, forcomposing and performing the
introduction medley for I NeedBlue.
(01:07):
You can find information aboutChar on her website,
wwwchargoodcom.
Before starting today's episode,I must provide a trigger
warning.
I Need Blue features graphicthemes including, but not
limited to, violence, abuse andmurder, and may not be suitable
for all listeners.
(01:28):
Please take care of yourselfand don't hesitate to ask for
help if you need it.
Now let's get started withtoday's story.
Robbie is a former firefighterand current paramedic who, when
I asked why do you stay in yourline of work?
He replied it's in my blood.
(01:49):
With decades of service to hiscommunities, he is here to shed
light on being a first responder, including what it was like
during COVID-19.
While serving the community,Paramedics often provide care,
as patients are transported to ahospital or clinic via
(02:09):
helicopter or ambulance.
Unlike EMTs, paramedics candistribute oral and intravenous
medication and much more.
Robbie shared there are manyangles to being a paramedic.
We will talk about his journeyto becoming a paramedic, the
trauma associated with the jobservicing during COVID-19, and
(02:34):
the difference between workingfor the private sector versus
the government-funded one.
This is going to be aninformative and intriguing
conversation, robbie.
Thank you for being my guesttoday and welcome to the I Need
Blue podcast.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Absolutely, and thank you for all you do.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
I think it's important we start with that In
our conversation.
You initially started out as afirefighter and then
transitioned into a paramedic.
Can you tell us about yourexperience as a firefighter, and
then what made you shift gears?
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Sure, the way you become a firefighter first is
because that's kind of how thestructure was.
Most people do not go from highschool straight into paramedic.
You have to have a bridgesomehow.
So a lot of people can gothrough school by either going
to EMT school and then straighton to paramedic.
You have to have a bridgesomehow, so a lot of people can
go through school by eithergoing to EMT school and then
straight on to paramedic afterthat.
But you have to pay for that.
Otherwise you could do yourfire school for a minimal cost,
(03:34):
get into firefighting and thenhave them pay for the rest of it
.
You know, that way they canaccommodate your schedule and so
forth, because if you're tryingto work 40 hours and be in
paramedic school, that's almostimpossible.
I knew I wanted to be inparamedics in high school.
It was my strongest suit, youknow, with the biology and
chemistry and such, it just kindof flowed for me.
(03:56):
Firefighting was a differentbeast altogether.
That was a challenge.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
In your experience.
What surprised you the mostbeing a firefighter?
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Actually just learning how the world works.
When you're a kid, you'regrowing up and you're told where
to go, what to do, what to doso forth You're not really
calling the shots of yourenvironment.
When you become a firefighterand a paramedic, often you're in
a scene and you've got to bethe one to tell everybody what
to do.
So without those kinds of lifeexperiences, being hit with all
(04:30):
these different kinds of newsituations.
That was surprising, but not somuch in a positive way.
It was very stressful.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
How old were you when you became a firefighter, if I
can ask I was right after my21st birthday.
Wow, and how long were you inthat career?
Speaker 2 (04:46):
I was only a firefighter for four years four
and a half years and I did mediccontinuously after that.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Okay, great.
One of the things we touchedupon in the introduction was you
were servicing the Tampacommunity during COVID-19.
Can you explain how that wasdifferent before COVID-19?
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Sure, before COVID everybody was kind of complacent
in a way of saying, well, thisis how we do healthcare, it's
the same old thing.
Go here, do this, wait for that.
You kind of had a rhythm.
When COVID hit, everybody hadno idea what to do.
There was no coordinatedresponse in Tampa and you're
talking six different agencies,maybe more.
So when you had a call orsomething, you were going from
(05:32):
one place to another.
It was not uncommon to be in awhole new situation when you got
to the new hospital.
You didn't know if they couldtake you or if you had to sit
there and wait.
Or they were telling you don'tcome here at all.
It was kind of wait, or theywere telling you don't come here
at all.
It was kind of I don't want tosay disorganized, but it was
every man for himself which ledto a mass disorganization.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
I think that people in general felt like it was
every man for himself and likeyou, trying to figure out you
know which way to go.
I never thought about what itwas like for the first
responders and how you get thatorganization there in such an
intense situation.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Protocol was always the same.
You have a script you've got tofollow for the most part.
If you have anything you'd liketo do, you could always call,
get medical direction to dosomething a little out of
protocol, but you wouldn't gorogue or anything like that out
of protocol, but you wouldn't gorogue or anything like that.
But there was definitely timeswhen you had to get really
creative because the situationsyou had whether you were running
(06:29):
out of oxygen you had to do allkinds of different things.
There was times when you had alot of helicopter flights.
You'd have patients that wouldbe better off with helicopters
but if they weren't flyingbecause of COVID or because they
had too many patients.
I was introduced to a lot of newprocedures, like one was called
ECMO, where they basically takeyour blood out of your body and
(06:50):
then put oxygen in it and thenput the blood back into you.
I was introduced to all thesenew procedures and with COVID,
that was the last line treatment.
That was the most important.
Everybody was just shorthanded.
You couldn't call to thehospital and say, hey, guys,
give me a hand, I need this overhere, I need this over here.
And then came down the PPEissue.
We couldn't get gowns, wecouldn't get masks and things
(07:13):
like this.
So we were trying to do allthis and what our agency started
using as spacesuits becausethey couldn't get anything else.
You were constantly having toadjust to different situations
and different challenges.
You know, to say the least.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Absolutely, and did the, let's say symptoms of a
person that you would pick upchange as far as something
became more common now when youhad a 911 call?
To respond to.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Like, did I see an uptick in things Like the same
kind of symptoms With COVID?
For sure, you know, at firsteverybody was calling it
pneumonia.
You know it was coming in thehospitals this has got pneumonia
, this has got pneumonia.
And it didn't exactly act likepneumonia in a lot of ways.
So the doctors were looking atit constantly and then they
would start to pull it up on the, on the x-rays and stuff and
(08:04):
try to piece it out.
And we were all trying tofigure it out as we went to like
, what are we seeing?
What are we doing?
You know, the biggest problemwas when we learned COVID stops
the transition of oxygen fromyour alveoli into your
bloodstream.
So it didn't matter how much Iwas putting air in your lungs,
how much oxygen I was putting inthere, it wasn't going into
(08:24):
your blood.
That's when you have to do theECMO treatment Learning.
That was tough because we're,you know, we're trying to
ventilate these people andtrying to keep their oxygen
saturations as best we can.
But here we are notunderstanding that it doesn't
matter how much we put in there.
It's really we're fighting anuphill battle.
From beginning it got better astime went on, you know, as
(08:51):
treatments got better, but itwas.
It was something else.
And the hardest part too wasalso that we really believed
that people were asymptomaticand still had COVID.
When we got people that weretesting positive for COVID at
the beginning, they were allkinds of ways.
You had them laid out incritical condition or you had
them where they were runningaround playing games.
So people were confused, and sowere we.
We didn't know how seriously totake it at first and what to do
(09:15):
, and people panicked too.
People didn't want any part ofit, so they left and left, you
know, a few of us hanging.
But I did not see a mass exodusof EMS workers.
Where I was I didn't see a lotof that.
People just they just gotthrough it.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Yeah Well, you're dedicated to service.
That's why you are where youare was for the betterment of
people and to help them.
Let's talk about how you helpyourself.
Being a paramedic, I can'timagine the things that you must
see the loss of life how areyou coping with?
Speaker 2 (09:53):
that you think about it sometimes like a SIDS death
back in the day.
That was a little tough.
It's also if you're in yourcommunity or not.
I had no ties to Tampa so whenI worked there I didn't know
anyone and it was very I couldbe very objective.
When I was working in myhometown it was a different
story completely.
(10:13):
As a paramedic it's much easierto work objectively than it is
to be affected, but at the sametime you can get certain
patients who just hit you rightin the heartstrings.
There's nothing you can doabout it, and then I think it
also helps to get a healthypicture on life itself.
You know and understand deathis part of the cycle and it
(10:33):
needs to be treated with respect, even objectified.
It needs to be treated withrespect each time.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
And they also say you know, when it comes to first
responders, it's important tohave friends that are not first
responders.
Do you find that to be true aswell and helpful?
Speaker 2 (10:52):
You know, yeah, you know, like I said, I didn't have
any ties in Tampa.
So the friends that I met there, I never hung out with anybody
at the Avalos company matter offact.
I mean, I was their partners insuch a close personal way and
we were very good friends and Ireally enjoyed their company,
you know, but it wasn't thepeople I hung out with on my
days off.
The people I hung out with didcompletely different jobs and I
(11:14):
enjoyed it.
But I also found it kind ofhard to just only talk about
their job.
You know, they don't understandmine, I don't understand theirs
.
So you couldn't really talkabout work that much, even when
you had a crazy day.
But I played a lot of golf if Icould.
That's what kept me going mostof the time.
(11:34):
As long as I was doingsomething, I was fine.
I wouldn't feel any like PTSDfrom earlier, but I did many
years going from the firedepartment on and I think it
wasn't necessarily the PTSD fromthe calls themselves but the
actual transition of being inthose environments, feeling all
that stress that I've never feltbefore.
So that was kind of rough.
(11:57):
But other than that I prettymuch had a good balance.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Yeah, thank you for sharing that.
Can I ask, just in casesomebody is listening and maybe
they're a first responderexperiencing you know different
symptoms, different reactions,your PTSD symptoms.
How would you describe them?
Speaker 2 (12:26):
people, friends of mine, that have much more severe
.
Mine was more of just a cringemoment and just a negative
feeling, maybe, ofself-confidence, you know, like
where you just is shaken to thepoint to where you don't have a
clue, you don't know what to do.
So I found myself seeking a lotof approval and not really
growing into my own personbecause of that, and once I kind
of was able to work in Tampa, Ifinally started to feel like,
oh yeah, I can do this just fine.
(12:48):
And then that healing helpedthose symptoms.
Anxiety was very prevalent, Iwould go into the fire
department and everything and mybody just turned on itself
because I was so stressed outall the time I had endocrine
issues and the sleep cycle.
Time I had endocrine issues andthe sleep cycle.
(13:11):
I'm 44, almost 45, and I'm juststarting to realize what it's
like to sleep every night andget into that rhythm.
And, man, it's like you're somuch more in control of your
life on the daily.
You're always on alarm phase,you're always ready for the next
thing to happen, so youranxiety's up.
You're always got your eyes on,your ears on.
You're looking around, waitingfor something A peaceful life.
You know what is that.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
That's a really great point, and so I'm going to ask
what does peace look like foryou?
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Everything's balanced .
That's the thing I very muchlike to work in goal-oriented
things, like many missions, soto say.
So if I have a project that I'mworking on or something I like
to do that accomplish that, justthose little feelings of
accomplishment.
A lot of it is artisticexpression as well.
You know, it's not necessarilyabout the finished product, it's
(13:59):
just about doing it, whetherit's playing music or whether
it's cutting the grass, it'sjust something that I do, that I
pay attention to and I enjoywhile I'm doing it, the Zen kind
of moments.
I need those as much as I needexcitement, I need solitude as
much as I need to be in a bar orsomething.
(14:21):
I need people, and I needeverything in 50-50.
The closer I can keep my workto life balance, my sleep to
party ratio or whatever.
If I can keep it level, I'm ingood shape.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
So if somebody was contemplating gosh, I think I
want to be a paramedic, but I'mnot really sure what advice
would you give them?
Speaker 2 (14:43):
I say he's just as dumb as I am.
That's a joke we have, becauseit's like you know what you're
getting into.
You know what I mean.
Nobody says, well, you knowwhat, I'm just going to be a
peddler.
No, you kind of know whatyou're going to get into.
If you're thinking about it.
If you're thinking about it,you've already got an idea of
who you are and say you knowwhat I like to do.
(15:03):
This people, I think I mighthave this.
And thank God you can't justjump in, you can't just go all
the way deep too quick.
You're going to start takingclasses and start doing your
ride alongs and your things likethis.
So if it's not for you, you'regoing to find out really fast.
And then, if it is for youthat's what I mean by being dumb
as I am because now you'regoing to be paid less, you're
(15:25):
going to be working longer,you're going to be doing all
these things.
It's stressing you out.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
So that's what I mean .
Welcome to the show.
Here's your seatbelt.
Yes, I can't imagine.
But again, I am thankful foryou and I love that you laugh.
You know, even in our firstconversation there was humor and
a lot of times that's a great,healthy coping system.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
Healthcare workers are funny and witty and clever.
You need to be sharp, you needto know what you're saying.
You need to be able to back itup.
If you've already got an ideaof what kind of people person
you are and if you can reallytalk to people, you'll be fine.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
Awesome.
Another topic we wanted todiscuss, in reference to how you
said there are long hours, youdon't get paid enough and all of
these other things, somethingthat was important to you was
talking about the private sectorversus the government funded
sector.
Honestly, didn't know there wasa difference, so I'm learning
(16:28):
right along with you.
So if there's any informationor experience of yours that you
would like to share, let'seducate the audience.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
Right.
I don't think most people areaware that there are privately
run companies in your citygovernments or local governments
, whichever.
Sometimes, like we werespeaking about earlier in
Pinellas County, that's run bySunstar, which is a private
ambulance company, but theydon't get the same kind of state
retirements or the same loanbenefits that the person doing
the same job over in West PalmBeach gets.
(16:59):
It's just not exactly the sameacross the board.
But also there's usually astigma when it comes to the
public paid firefighters.
You know that's our boys,that's our first responders.
It's not the other people thatare in the private ambulances
that are also doing differentthings behind the scenes that
you may not be so aware of.
But when it's your turn, you'relike oh, thank you, You're here
(17:21):
.
I don't know how to reallyframe it better than that.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
No worries.
So for me, when I see anambulance to me, they all look
the same.
The color might be different.
One might be red, one might bewhite, so I had no idea that
it's different.
Now, have you worked for both?
Have you worked for one thatwas in private sector and one
that was government funded?
Speaker 2 (17:43):
Yes, I have, and the thing is it also depends if
you're doing like first responseto people's houses or to car
wrecks and things.
I don't want to speak like I,cause I really don't know
exactly what it's called.
I think it's called like acertificate of need, where they
have to say that this is ourgroup and this is who we cover.
So your tax dollars arecovering this area as a private
company.
You can't go into thatterritory and help them run
(18:05):
calls.
They want the whole territoryfor themselves.
That's their business.
In Tampa we were helping out thelocal governments, but we were
doing calls that they'reconsidered easy ones.
I think that's part of thestigma too.
It's like you know, if a personjust falls down, they would
send us to go pick them up ortake them to the hospital if
they wanted to go.
(18:25):
But if it was a car wreck orsomething, heart attack or
something, then the firedepartment would go.
That's interesting.
But let's say we're going fromhospital to hospital.
Right, that's not something thefire department can do.
They can't go from one city toanother, so we would At that
point that's when it could runeverything from this person just
as healthy as you and I, orsomebody who really needed a
(18:47):
ventilator, the whole for fivehours or longer.
It changes multiple times asfar as like what types of calls
you would do for innerfacilities.
But you know that's that'spredominantly private.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Can you give a couple positives to working for the
private sector and a couplenegatives?
Speaker 2 (19:04):
positives to working for the private sector.
And a couple negatives.
Sure, positive wise you gettime.
You can focus on therelationships because you're
going in and out of the samehospitals all the time.
So you're getting to know thenurses, you're getting to know
the doctors and when you getthat kind of rapport going you
can really dial it in on yourpatient much easier.
I can communicate easier.
(19:25):
The positive was definitelygetting to know the people a
little better.
Also, you learn the treatmentsas they go progress down the
line.
So first response you would takethem from the hospital, drop
them off at the ER.
That'd be it Well for us.
We would go from the ER to thecath lab, to the ICU unit, to
another hospital with anotherICU unit and you can see how the
(19:48):
patient would develop on theircharts and see how the
treatments would change.
Understanding of chemistries,you know things like this and
how it affects your patient overthe long term and what drugs do
what, for how long do they takethem and even things like
hospice.
You know you dealt with hospicea lot and you could really see
how far patient care has comefor people with cancer.
It's been.
You know it's been huge.
(20:09):
It really brought up a newpositive outlook for me to be
over there at that in Tampa thatway.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
And what were the drawbacks then?
Speaker 2 (20:18):
The drawbacks were you didn't have a union or
anything.
You didn't have a lot of push.
Then you know if somebody callsout now they're asking you to
work overnight.
Your schedule was much moredynamic.
My company was good, but thereare so many that you don't know
what kind of equipment you'reeven going to use.
That's not the best equipment.
I mean.
Even your trucks break downhalf the time.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Yeah, that's a problem yeah it can be sure.
So then, the government funded.
What did you find to be thepositives?
Speaker 2 (20:48):
You know what I did Like.
We did a lot of training.
We would do a lot more gettingout there into different
situations and different areas,different buildings and things,
and learn about how to controldifferent situations and how is
it having a family when you're afirst responder?
I think having the family wasthe hardest when you had to work
(21:11):
holidays.
That's when it was your turn.
Sometimes, if you're workingearly shifts or late shifts,
there was a long time where Iwouldn't get home until 2 or 3
in the morning.
Well, it wasn't fair for me togo in.
My wife and my kid know my kidare sleeping, you know wake them
all up and everything.
So I took a little room and youknow it was for like a year.
I had to sleep, you know, on myown because of my hours were so
(21:34):
crazy.
You miss out on that, you know,in that time.
But other than that, it reallysupported your family when you
were working, when nobody elsewas.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Absolutely.
What do you think has been thehardest part for your wife?
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Probably dealing with me developing and growing,
healing, and you know that wholestruggle because it's work that
you put in and it's hard.
It's hard on the other personbecause you know you're twisted
up so that untwisting, you knowshe's still going to get a lot
of flack from that.
Not to mention if you've beenup for too long and you're too
(22:11):
tired and you had to dosomething the next day for her.
You couldn't do it.
Things like this, or what ifyou got held over late and you
couldn't take your kid to schoollike you were supposed to, and
now she's got to call grandma orwhichever?
Speaker 1 (22:27):
So it goes from everything from the emotional to
the logistics of it.
Is your way of dealing with itall to kind of internalize it,
or do you find, if you come homeand talk a little bit about
your day, that that helps you?
Speaker 2 (22:34):
It's both, because I can talk about it, but all
that's really doing is justhelping you process it.
A lot of times, too, it wasjust you just need time, you
just need quiet.
You really need to know whatyou're feeling, and that's not
exactly easy.
My wife was able to help me dothat.
So, talking it out, we couldactually get to the root of the
problem.
But then again, so what?
(22:56):
You found the root, now whatare you going to do?
So then you know.
Then there comes the other part.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
Yeah, and have you sought help outside of your own,
talking with your wife andtrying to understand yourself?
Speaker 2 (23:28):
as best you can.
But also I was surrounded bysome amazing people who had very
much insight into who I was andyou know what we were all going
through, and to be able to talkit out with those kinds of
people really helped a lot too,Not to mention your partners
that you're with, because thatis your first line of therapy.
All the time it would turn intoa therapy session, you know,
but these are really smartpeople and they can help you
really see it from a differentperspective.
(23:49):
Yeah, you talked a lot.
You definitely did.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
Okay, how are you today?
Speaker 2 (23:54):
I'm better every day.
I think it's part of itsmaturity.
I think part of it is notactively working on the
ambulance right now, so that'sreally good.
I'm trying to take a transitionright now actually to go to
work in an OR instead.
So just to get off the truck toget that steady cycle.
(24:18):
Because, let's face it, ifyou're not sleeping and eating
right, you're not really givingyourself a chance to be healthy
and eating is almost impossibleon those trucks.
You're going to stop at Wawaall the time.
You can bring a cooler if youwant.
Most people do.
You bring your own food andsnacks and stuff, but it's not
the healthiest diet regimen atall.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
Well, I'm glad that you are looking to transition
into something that also excitesyou, and a new challenge and
all of that.
So I'm going to pray for you.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
Absolutely.
I wish you good luck.
Is there anything that I havemissed that you would like to
add to the conversation?
Speaker 2 (24:56):
And how it relates to which part.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
You can pick whichever part you want.
I wanted to make sure I coveredit all.
I have my list in front of me,but that doesn't mean I didn't
forget something.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
I think that it is an increasingly complex
environment to work in.
As time goes on, thelegislation changes and
treatments change and so forth.
The legalities of it all andwho's suing who is starting to
make it really difficult as faras how comfortable you feel to
act.
How do you navigate this landof policy and law and trying to
(25:33):
make all the customers happy?
It's challenging.
There's so much more to being aparamedic or a fireman or first
responder than just simplygoing on these calls.
It's a whole world you have tolearn to navigate.
My wife does not understand myworld and I do not understand
hers.
We just don't.
But I think that is also theother trade-off.
(25:58):
You go do this work.
You're going to help a lot ofpeople, but you're going to see
a side of life that you can'ttake back and that can jade you,
because you can think theworld's all is terrible, because
that's all you see all the time.
If you work in somethingpositive, that's what you will
see all the time.
You won't see the negative.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
So there's definitely that trade-off for sure and out
of curiosity, when you saidpeople get sued, do emts get
sued or?
Speaker 2 (26:24):
sure, yeah, they will tell you, like when I tell you,
when you go to school, they'lltell you to keep a million
dollars worth of malpracticeinsurance if you're really in a
heavy district, you know,because anybody can sue you for
anything.
Now, does that mean they'regoing to win?
No, you go to court a lot.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Really.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
Oh yeah, somebody gets in a car wreck.
They want your testimony.
Or if this person says that youdid this or this person
happened, I mean you have to beable to go.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
Wow, yeah, I mean, you are so right.
There is so much more to yourjob than what we realize.
We think what we see on TV,which is you drive the ambulance
fast with the lights on, yougot somebody inside, you're
helping, and then you take themto the hospital, you drop them
off, the doctors are therewaiting and boom, that's it.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
Yeah, in a nutshell, that is it.
If that goes right, it's cake.
But it doesn't always go right.
It can be the weirdest things,from just a piece of plastic
that pops off, you know, or ifthe driver hits a curb by
accident, or if he gets hit by acar.
Things happen all the time Rainweather, traffic, you name it.
So, yeah, it can be quitechallenging, because it is not
(27:30):
an easy job by any means, but itis so different in the things
that you think about and thethings that you have to deal
with.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
Yeah, I'm sure you work different shifts.
So let's say you have the dayshift, let's say nine to five,
and then you have the eveningshift.
Were the nature of the callsdifferent?
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Not typically.
Yes, you're going to see morealcohol related things later on.
You know when people aretypically going out.
You know drug ingestions,things like that will be later.
But no, no, most of the time itwas.
Anytime you never knew what youwere going to get.
Anytime you couldn't really saythat it's all going to be this
one day, you're all going to bethat, or this time of day it
(28:09):
should be these.
No, you never know.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
Have you ever arrived on a scene and you were in
danger?
Speaker 2 (28:17):
I had a gun pulled on me once, for sure.
Yeah, the thing was peoplealways say, well, if I get a gun
pulled on me, I'm going to dothis Well.
Well, if I get a gun pulled atme, I'm gonna do this.
Well, I know what I'm doing,I'm running, didn't even have
time to think he pulled the gun.
I ran poop out the door, youknow, and I was yelling gun, gun
(28:37):
, gun.
My partner got out too, but itwas like, yeah, I mean that's
just didn't expect that.
I mean you will see peopleagitated and angry, you know.
Or the ones that hurt you themost are the ones you're not
thinking about, like the old guywith Alzheimer's.
They can get really strong, youknow, when somebody's having
some kind of like neurologicalproblem or diabetes problem and
they're big and they're throwingyou around like ragdolls.
(28:58):
You can get hurt seriouslythose ways.
So it's not always just aviolent or scary situation.
It could be just every day.
One minute he's fine, nextminute he's flying off the rails
.
Thank you for sharing that.
Yeah, you're welcome.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
Do you have any final thoughts?
Speaker 2 (29:15):
No, I just appreciate what you're doing.
You know.
Let everybody know what it'slike.
I think that people that dothese jobs they're nurses and
paramedics and stuff they reallydo have a compassion and a lot
of times people will forgetabout that and they'll feel like
they're in their the worst dayof their life.
Really, you know, when you seethe human element, it really
(29:38):
brings it all home.
I would like people to thinkthat don't, don't lose that
human element, whether you'rethe patient or you're the
caregiver, because that's reallywhat makes it all better.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Beautiful message, thank you.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
And Robbie, thank you for being my guest on the I
Need Blue podcast.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
I enjoyed it.
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (29:59):
You're so welcome, and this is Jen Lee.
Thank you for spending timewith us today.
If you would like to learnanything and everything about I
Need Blue, visit my website,wwwinadebluenet.
And remember you are strongerthan you think.
Until next time, thank you.
Everyone has a story.
They just don't always have aplace to share it.
Welcome to I Need Blue, thepodcast about to take you on an
(00:22):
extraordinary journey whereprofound narratives come to life
, one captivating episode at atime.
I'm your host, jennifer Lee,and I founded this podcast
because I know there is healingand sharing.
Each story you will hear sharedon this podcast is a testament
to our collective strength,innate ability to transform in
(00:45):
the incredible power of healing.
Please remember you are neveralone.
Please visit and share mywebsite with those seeking
connection and inspirationwwwineedbluenet.
Thank you, char Good, forcomposing and performing the
introduction medley for I NeedBlue.
(01:07):
You can find information aboutChar on her website,
wwwchargoodcom.
Before starting today's episode,I must provide a trigger
warning.
I Need Blue features graphicthemes including, but not
limited to, violence, abuse andmurder, and may not be suitable
for all listeners.
(01:28):
Please take care of yourselfand don't hesitate to ask for
help if you need it.
Now let's get started withtoday's story.
Robbie is a former firefighterand current paramedic who, when
I asked why do you stay in yourline of work?
He replied it's in my blood.
(01:49):
With decades of service to hiscommunities, he is here to shed
light on being a first responder, including what it was like
during COVID-19.
While serving the community,Paramedics often provide care,
as patients are transported to ahospital or clinic via
(02:09):
helicopter or ambulance.
Unlike EMTs, paramedics candistribute oral and intravenous
medication and much more.
Robbie shared there are manyangles to being a paramedic.
We will talk about his journeyto becoming a paramedic, the
trauma associated with the jobservicing during COVID-19, and
(02:34):
the difference between workingfor the private sector versus
the government-funded one.
This is going to be aninformative and intriguing
conversation, robbie.
Thank you for being my guesttoday and welcome to the I Need
Blue podcast.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Absolutely, and thank you for all you do.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
I think it's important we start with that In
our conversation.
You initially started out as afirefighter and then
transitioned into a paramedic.
Can you tell us about yourexperience as a firefighter, and
then what made you shift gears?
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Sure, the way you become a firefighter first is
because that's kind of how thestructure was.
Most people do not go from highschool straight into paramedic.
You have to have a bridgesomehow.
So a lot of people can gothrough school by either going
to EMT school and then straighton to paramedic.
You have to have a bridgesomehow, so a lot of people can
go through school by eithergoing to EMT school and then
straight on to paramedic afterthat.
But you have to pay for that.
Otherwise you could do yourfire school for a minimal cost,
(03:34):
get into firefighting and thenhave them pay for the rest of it
.
You know, that way they canaccommodate your schedule and so
forth, because if you're tryingto work 40 hours and be in
paramedic school, that's almostimpossible.
I knew I wanted to be inparamedics in high school.
It was my strongest suit, youknow, with the biology and
chemistry and such, it just kindof flowed for me.
(03:56):
Firefighting was a differentbeast altogether.
That was a challenge.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
In your experience.
What surprised you the mostbeing a firefighter?
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Actually just learning how the world works.
When you're a kid, you'regrowing up and you're told where
to go, what to do, what to doso forth You're not really
calling the shots of yourenvironment.
When you become a firefighterand a paramedic, often you're in
a scene and you've got to bethe one to tell everybody what
to do.
So without those kinds of lifeexperiences, being hit with all
(04:30):
these different kinds of newsituations.
That was surprising, but not somuch in a positive way.
It was very stressful.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
How old were you when you became a firefighter, if I
can ask I was right after my21st birthday.
Wow, and how long were you inthat career?
Speaker 2 (04:46):
I was only a firefighter for four years four
and a half years and I did mediccontinuously after that.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Okay, great.
One of the things we touchedupon in the introduction was you
were servicing the Tampacommunity during COVID-19.
Can you explain how that wasdifferent before COVID-19?
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Sure, before COVID everybody was kind of complacent
in a way of saying, well, thisis how we do healthcare, it's
the same old thing.
Go here, do this, wait for that.
You kind of had a rhythm.
When COVID hit, everybody hadno idea what to do.
There was no coordinatedresponse in Tampa and you're
talking six different agencies,maybe more.
So when you had a call orsomething, you were going from
(05:32):
one place to another.
It was not uncommon to be in awhole new situation when you got
to the new hospital.
You didn't know if they couldtake you or if you had to sit
there and wait.
Or they were telling you don'tcome here at all.
It was kind of wait, or theywere telling you don't come here
at all.
It was kind of I don't want tosay disorganized, but it was
every man for himself which ledto a mass disorganization.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
I think that people in general felt like it was
every man for himself and likeyou, trying to figure out you
know which way to go.
I never thought about what itwas like for the first
responders and how you get thatorganization there in such an
intense situation.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Protocol was always the same.
You have a script you've got tofollow for the most part.
If you have anything you'd liketo do, you could always call,
get medical direction to dosomething a little out of
protocol, but you wouldn't gorogue or anything like that out
of protocol, but you wouldn't gorogue or anything like that.
But there was definitely timeswhen you had to get really
creative because the situationsyou had whether you were running
(06:29):
out of oxygen you had to do allkinds of different things.
There was times when you had alot of helicopter flights.
You'd have patients that wouldbe better off with helicopters
but if they weren't flyingbecause of COVID or because they
had too many patients.
I was introduced to a lot of newprocedures, like one was called
ECMO, where they basically takeyour blood out of your body and
(06:50):
then put oxygen in it and thenput the blood back into you.
I was introduced to all thesenew procedures and with COVID,
that was the last line treatment.
That was the most important.
Everybody was just shorthanded.
You couldn't call to thehospital and say, hey, guys,
give me a hand, I need this overhere, I need this over here.
And then came down the PPEissue.
We couldn't get gowns, wecouldn't get masks and things
(07:13):
like this.
So we were trying to do allthis and what our agency started
using as spacesuits becausethey couldn't get anything else.
You were constantly having toadjust to different situations
and different challenges.
You know, to say the least.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Absolutely, and did the, let's say symptoms of a
person that you would pick upchange as far as something
became more common now when youhad a 911 call?
To respond to.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Like, did I see an uptick in things Like the same
kind of symptoms With COVID?
For sure, you know, at firsteverybody was calling it
pneumonia.
You know it was coming in thehospitals this has got pneumonia
, this has got pneumonia.
And it didn't exactly act likepneumonia in a lot of ways.
So the doctors were looking atit constantly and then they
would start to pull it up on the, on the x-rays and stuff and
(08:04):
try to piece it out.
And we were all trying tofigure it out as we went to like
, what are we seeing?
What are we doing?
You know, the biggest problemwas when we learned COVID stops
the transition of oxygen fromyour alveoli into your
bloodstream.
So it didn't matter how much Iwas putting air in your lungs,
how much oxygen I was putting inthere, it wasn't going into
(08:24):
your blood.
That's when you have to do theECMO treatment Learning.
That was tough because we're,you know, we're trying to
ventilate these people andtrying to keep their oxygen
saturations as best we can.
But here we are notunderstanding that it doesn't
matter how much we put in there.
It's really we're fighting anuphill battle.
From beginning it got better astime went on, you know, as
(08:51):
treatments got better, but itwas.
It was something else.
And the hardest part too wasalso that we really believed
that people were asymptomaticand still had COVID.
When we got people that weretesting positive for COVID at
the beginning, they were allkinds of ways.
You had them laid out incritical condition or you had
them where they were runningaround playing games.
So people were confused, and sowere we.
We didn't know how seriously totake it at first and what to do
(09:15):
, and people panicked too.
People didn't want any part ofit, so they left and left, you
know, a few of us hanging.
But I did not see a mass exodusof EMS workers.
Where I was I didn't see a lotof that.
People just they just gotthrough it.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Yeah Well, you're dedicated to service.
That's why you are where youare was for the betterment of
people and to help them.
Let's talk about how you helpyourself.
Being a paramedic, I can'timagine the things that you must
see the loss of life how areyou coping with?
Speaker 2 (09:53):
that you think about it sometimes like a SIDS death
back in the day.
That was a little tough.
It's also if you're in yourcommunity or not.
I had no ties to Tampa so whenI worked there I didn't know
anyone and it was very I couldbe very objective.
When I was working in myhometown it was a different
story completely.
(10:13):
As a paramedic it's much easierto work objectively than it is
to be affected, but at the sametime you can get certain
patients who just hit you rightin the heartstrings.
There's nothing you can doabout it, and then I think it
also helps to get a healthypicture on life itself.
You know and understand deathis part of the cycle and it
(10:33):
needs to be treated with respect, even objectified.
It needs to be treated withrespect each time.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
And they also say you know, when it comes to first
responders, it's important tohave friends that are not first
responders.
Do you find that to be true aswell and helpful?
Speaker 2 (10:52):
You know, yeah, you know, like I said, I didn't have
any ties in Tampa.
So the friends that I met there, I never hung out with anybody
at the Avalos company matter offact.
I mean, I was their partners insuch a close personal way and
we were very good friends and Ireally enjoyed their company,
you know, but it wasn't thepeople I hung out with on my
days off.
The people I hung out with didcompletely different jobs and I
(11:14):
enjoyed it.
But I also found it kind ofhard to just only talk about
their job.
You know, they don't understandmine, I don't understand theirs
.
So you couldn't really talkabout work that much, even when
you had a crazy day.
But I played a lot of golf if Icould.
That's what kept me going mostof the time.
(11:34):
As long as I was doingsomething, I was fine.
I wouldn't feel any like PTSDfrom earlier, but I did many
years going from the firedepartment on and I think it
wasn't necessarily the PTSD fromthe calls themselves but the
actual transition of being inthose environments, feeling all
that stress that I've never feltbefore.
So that was kind of rough.
(11:57):
But other than that I prettymuch had a good balance.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Yeah, thank you for sharing that.
Can I ask, just in casesomebody is listening and maybe
they're a first responderexperiencing you know different
symptoms, different reactions,your PTSD symptoms.
How would you describe them?
Speaker 2 (12:26):
people, friends of mine, that have much more severe
.
Mine was more of just a cringemoment and just a negative
feeling, maybe, ofself-confidence, you know, like
where you just is shaken to thepoint to where you don't have a
clue, you don't know what to do.
So I found myself seeking a lotof approval and not really
growing into my own personbecause of that, and once I kind
of was able to work in Tampa, Ifinally started to feel like,
oh yeah, I can do this just fine.
(12:48):
And then that healing helpedthose symptoms.
Anxiety was very prevalent, Iwould go into the fire
department and everything and mybody just turned on itself
because I was so stressed outall the time I had endocrine
issues and the sleep cycle.
Time I had endocrine issues andthe sleep cycle.
(13:11):
I'm 44, almost 45, and I'm juststarting to realize what it's
like to sleep every night andget into that rhythm.
And, man, it's like you're somuch more in control of your
life on the daily.
You're always on alarm phase,you're always ready for the next
thing to happen, so youranxiety's up.
You're always got your eyes on,your ears on.
You're looking around, waitingfor something A peaceful life.
You know what is that.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
That's a really great point, and so I'm going to ask
what does peace look like foryou?
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Everything's balanced .
That's the thing I very muchlike to work in goal-oriented
things, like many missions, soto say.
So if I have a project that I'mworking on or something I like
to do that accomplish that, justthose little feelings of
accomplishment.
A lot of it is artisticexpression as well.
You know, it's not necessarilyabout the finished product, it's
(13:59):
just about doing it, whetherit's playing music or whether
it's cutting the grass, it'sjust something that I do, that I
pay attention to and I enjoywhile I'm doing it, the Zen kind
of moments.
I need those as much as I needexcitement, I need solitude as
much as I need to be in a bar orsomething.
(14:21):
I need people, and I needeverything in 50-50.
The closer I can keep my workto life balance, my sleep to
party ratio or whatever.
If I can keep it level, I'm ingood shape.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
So if somebody was contemplating gosh, I think I
want to be a paramedic, but I'mnot really sure what advice
would you give them?
Speaker 2 (14:43):
I say he's just as dumb as I am.
That's a joke we have, becauseit's like you know what you're
getting into.
You know what I mean.
Nobody says, well, you knowwhat, I'm just going to be a
peddler.
No, you kind of know whatyou're going to get into.
If you're thinking about it.
If you're thinking about it,you've already got an idea of
who you are and say you knowwhat I like to do.
(15:03):
This people, I think I mighthave this.
And thank God you can't justjump in, you can't just go all
the way deep too quick.
You're going to start takingclasses and start doing your
ride alongs and your things likethis.
So if it's not for you, you'regoing to find out really fast.
And then, if it is for youthat's what I mean by being dumb
as I am because now you'regoing to be paid less, you're
(15:25):
going to be working longer,you're going to be doing all
these things.
It's stressing you out.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
So that's what I mean .
Welcome to the show.
Here's your seatbelt.
Yes, I can't imagine.
But again, I am thankful foryou and I love that you laugh.
You know, even in our firstconversation there was humor and
a lot of times that's a great,healthy coping system.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
Healthcare workers are funny and witty and clever.
You need to be sharp, you needto know what you're saying.
You need to be able to back itup.
If you've already got an ideaof what kind of people person
you are and if you can reallytalk to people, you'll be fine.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
Awesome.
Another topic we wanted todiscuss, in reference to how you
said there are long hours, youdon't get paid enough and all of
these other things, somethingthat was important to you was
talking about the private sectorversus the government funded
sector.
Honestly, didn't know there wasa difference, so I'm learning
(16:28):
right along with you.
So if there's any informationor experience of yours that you
would like to share, let'seducate the audience.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
Right.
I don't think most people areaware that there are privately
run companies in your citygovernments or local governments
, whichever.
Sometimes, like we werespeaking about earlier in
Pinellas County, that's run bySunstar, which is a private
ambulance company, but theydon't get the same kind of state
retirements or the same loanbenefits that the person doing
the same job over in West PalmBeach gets.
(16:59):
It's just not exactly the sameacross the board.
But also there's usually astigma when it comes to the
public paid firefighters.
You know that's our boys,that's our first responders.
It's not the other people thatare in the private ambulances
that are also doing differentthings behind the scenes that
you may not be so aware of.
But when it's your turn, you'relike oh, thank you, You're here
(17:21):
.
I don't know how to reallyframe it better than that.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
No worries.
So for me, when I see anambulance to me, they all look
the same.
The color might be different.
One might be red, one might bewhite, so I had no idea that
it's different.
Now, have you worked for both?
Have you worked for one thatwas in private sector and one
that was government funded?
Speaker 2 (17:43):
Yes, I have, and the thing is it also depends if
you're doing like first responseto people's houses or to car
wrecks and things.
I don't want to speak like I,cause I really don't know
exactly what it's called.
I think it's called like acertificate of need, where they
have to say that this is ourgroup and this is who we cover.
So your tax dollars arecovering this area as a private
company.
You can't go into thatterritory and help them run
(18:05):
calls.
They want the whole territoryfor themselves.
That's their business.
In Tampa we were helping out thelocal governments, but we were
doing calls that they'reconsidered easy ones.
I think that's part of thestigma too.
It's like you know, if a personjust falls down, they would
send us to go pick them up ortake them to the hospital if
they wanted to go.
(18:25):
But if it was a car wreck orsomething, heart attack or
something, then the firedepartment would go.
That's interesting.
But let's say we're going fromhospital to hospital.
Right, that's not something thefire department can do.
They can't go from one city toanother, so we would At that
point that's when it could runeverything from this person just
as healthy as you and I, orsomebody who really needed a
(18:47):
ventilator, the whole for fivehours or longer.
It changes multiple times asfar as like what types of calls
you would do for innerfacilities.
But you know that's that'spredominantly private.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Can you give a couple positives to working for the
private sector and a couplenegatives?
Speaker 2 (19:04):
positives to working for the private sector.
And a couple negatives.
Sure, positive wise you gettime.
You can focus on therelationships because you're
going in and out of the samehospitals all the time.
So you're getting to know thenurses, you're getting to know
the doctors and when you getthat kind of rapport going you
can really dial it in on yourpatient much easier.
I can communicate easier.
(19:25):
The positive was definitelygetting to know the people a
little better.
Also, you learn the treatmentsas they go progress down the
line.
So first response you would takethem from the hospital, drop
them off at the ER.
That'd be it Well for us.
We would go from the ER to thecath lab, to the ICU unit, to
another hospital with anotherICU unit and you can see how the
(19:48):
patient would develop on theircharts and see how the
treatments would change.
Understanding of chemistries,you know things like this and
how it affects your patient overthe long term and what drugs do
what, for how long do they takethem and even things like
hospice.
You know you dealt with hospicea lot and you could really see
how far patient care has comefor people with cancer.
It's been.
You know it's been huge.
(20:09):
It really brought up a newpositive outlook for me to be
over there at that in Tampa thatway.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
And what were the drawbacks then?
Speaker 2 (20:18):
The drawbacks were you didn't have a union or
anything.
You didn't have a lot of push.
Then you know if somebody callsout now they're asking you to
work overnight.
Your schedule was much moredynamic.
My company was good, but thereare so many that you don't know
what kind of equipment you'reeven going to use.
That's not the best equipment.
I mean.
Even your trucks break downhalf the time.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Yeah, that's a problem yeah it can be sure.
So then, the government funded.
What did you find to be thepositives?
Speaker 2 (20:48):
You know what I did Like.
We did a lot of training.
We would do a lot more gettingout there into different
situations and different areas,different buildings and things,
and learn about how to controldifferent situations and how is
it having a family when you're afirst responder?
I think having the family wasthe hardest when you had to work
(21:11):
holidays.
That's when it was your turn.
Sometimes, if you're workingearly shifts or late shifts,
there was a long time where Iwouldn't get home until 2 or 3
in the morning.
Well, it wasn't fair for me togo in.
My wife and my kid know my kidare sleeping, you know wake them
all up and everything.
So I took a little room and youknow it was for like a year.
I had to sleep, you know, on myown because of my hours were so
(21:34):
crazy.
You miss out on that, you know,in that time.
But other than that, it reallysupported your family when you
were working, when nobody elsewas.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Absolutely.
What do you think has been thehardest part for your wife?
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Probably dealing with me developing and growing,
healing, and you know that wholestruggle because it's work that
you put in and it's hard.
It's hard on the other personbecause you know you're twisted
up so that untwisting, you knowshe's still going to get a lot
of flack from that.
Not to mention if you've beenup for too long and you're too
(22:11):
tired and you had to dosomething the next day for her.
You couldn't do it.
Things like this, or what ifyou got held over late and you
couldn't take your kid to schoollike you were supposed to, and
now she's got to call grandma orwhichever?
Speaker 1 (22:27):
So it goes from everything from the emotional to
the logistics of it.
Is your way of dealing with itall to kind of internalize it,
or do you find, if you come homeand talk a little bit about
your day, that that helps you?
Speaker 2 (22:34):
It's both, because I can talk about it, but all
that's really doing is justhelping you process it.
A lot of times, too, it wasjust you just need time, you
just need quiet.
You really need to know whatyou're feeling, and that's not
exactly easy.
My wife was able to help me dothat.
So, talking it out, we couldactually get to the root of the
problem.
But then again, so what?
(22:56):
You found the root, now whatare you going to do?
So then you know.
Then there comes the other part.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
Yeah, and have you sought help outside of your own,
talking with your wife andtrying to understand yourself?
Speaker 2 (23:28):
as best you can.
But also I was surrounded bysome amazing people who had very
much insight into who I was andyou know what we were all going
through, and to be able to talkit out with those kinds of
people really helped a lot too,Not to mention your partners
that you're with, because thatis your first line of therapy.
All the time it would turn intoa therapy session, you know,
but these are really smartpeople and they can help you
really see it from a differentperspective.
(23:49):
Yeah, you talked a lot.
You definitely did.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
Okay, how are you today?
Speaker 2 (23:54):
I'm better every day.
I think it's part of itsmaturity.
I think part of it is notactively working on the
ambulance right now, so that'sreally good.
I'm trying to take a transitionright now actually to go to
work in an OR instead.
So just to get off the truck toget that steady cycle.
(24:18):
Because, let's face it, ifyou're not sleeping and eating
right, you're not really givingyourself a chance to be healthy
and eating is almost impossibleon those trucks.
You're going to stop at Wawaall the time.
You can bring a cooler if youwant.
Most people do.
You bring your own food andsnacks and stuff, but it's not
the healthiest diet regimen atall.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
Well, I'm glad that you are looking to transition
into something that also excitesyou, and a new challenge and
all of that.
So I'm going to pray for you.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
Absolutely.
I wish you good luck.
Is there anything that I havemissed that you would like to
add to the conversation?
Speaker 2 (24:56):
And how it relates to which part.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
You can pick whichever part you want.
I wanted to make sure I coveredit all.
I have my list in front of me,but that doesn't mean I didn't
forget something.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
I think that it is an increasingly complex
environment to work in.
As time goes on, thelegislation changes and
treatments change and so forth.
The legalities of it all andwho's suing who is starting to
make it really difficult as faras how comfortable you feel to
act.
How do you navigate this landof policy and law and trying to
(25:33):
make all the customers happy?
It's challenging.
There's so much more to being aparamedic or a fireman or first
responder than just simplygoing on these calls.
It's a whole world you have tolearn to navigate.
My wife does not understand myworld and I do not understand
hers.
We just don't.
But I think that is also theother trade-off.
(25:58):
You go do this work.
You're going to help a lot ofpeople, but you're going to see
a side of life that you can'ttake back and that can jade you,
because you can think theworld's all is terrible, because
that's all you see all the time.
If you work in somethingpositive, that's what you will
see all the time.
You won't see the negative.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
So there's definitely that trade-off for sure and out
of curiosity, when you saidpeople get sued, do emts get
sued or?
Speaker 2 (26:24):
sure, yeah, they will tell you, like when I tell you,
when you go to school, they'lltell you to keep a million
dollars worth of malpracticeinsurance if you're really in a
heavy district, you know,because anybody can sue you for
anything.
Now, does that mean they'regoing to win?
No, you go to court a lot.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Really.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
Oh yeah, somebody gets in a car wreck.
They want your testimony.
Or if this person says that youdid this or this person
happened, I mean you have to beable to go.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
Wow, yeah, I mean, you are so right.
There is so much more to yourjob than what we realize.
We think what we see on TV,which is you drive the ambulance
fast with the lights on, yougot somebody inside, you're
helping, and then you take themto the hospital, you drop them
off, the doctors are therewaiting and boom, that's it.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
Yeah, in a nutshell, that is it.
If that goes right, it's cake.
But it doesn't always go right.
It can be the weirdest things,from just a piece of plastic
that pops off, you know, or ifthe driver hits a curb by
accident, or if he gets hit by acar.
Things happen all the time Rainweather, traffic, you name it.
So, yeah, it can be quitechallenging, because it is not
(27:30):
an easy job by any means, but itis so different in the things
that you think about and thethings that you have to deal
with.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
Yeah, I'm sure you work different shifts.
So let's say you have the dayshift, let's say nine to five,
and then you have the eveningshift.
Were the nature of the callsdifferent?
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Not typically.
Yes, you're going to see morealcohol related things later on.
You know when people aretypically going out.
You know drug ingestions,things like that will be later.
But no, no, most of the time itwas.
Anytime you never knew what youwere going to get.
Anytime you couldn't really saythat it's all going to be this
one day, you're all going to bethat, or this time of day it
(28:09):
should be these.
No, you never know.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
Have you ever arrived on a scene and you were in
danger?
Speaker 2 (28:17):
I had a gun pulled on me once, for sure.
Yeah, the thing was peoplealways say, well, if I get a gun
pulled on me, I'm going to dothis Well.
Well, if I get a gun pulled atme, I'm gonna do this.
Well, I know what I'm doing,I'm running, didn't even have
time to think he pulled the gun.
I ran poop out the door, youknow, and I was yelling gun, gun
(28:37):
, gun.
My partner got out too, but itwas like, yeah, I mean that's
just didn't expect that.
I mean you will see peopleagitated and angry, you know.
Or the ones that hurt you themost are the ones you're not
thinking about, like the old guywith Alzheimer's.
They can get really strong, youknow, when somebody's having
some kind of like neurologicalproblem or diabetes problem and
they're big and they're throwingyou around like ragdolls.
(28:58):
You can get hurt seriouslythose ways.
So it's not always just aviolent or scary situation.
It could be just every day.
One minute he's fine, nextminute he's flying off the rails
.
Thank you for sharing that.
Yeah, you're welcome.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
Do you have any final thoughts?
Speaker 2 (29:15):
No, I just appreciate what you're doing.
You know.
Let everybody know what it'slike.
I think that people that dothese jobs they're nurses and
paramedics and stuff they reallydo have a compassion and a lot
of times people will forgetabout that and they'll feel like
they're in their the worst dayof their life.
Really, you know, when you seethe human element, it really
(29:38):
brings it all home.
I would like people to thinkthat don't, don't lose that
human element, whether you'rethe patient or you're the
caregiver, because that's reallywhat makes it all better.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Beautiful message, thank you.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
And Robbie, thank you for being my guest on the I
Need Blue podcast.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
I enjoyed it.
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (29:59):
You're so welcome, and this is Jen Lee.
Thank you for spending timewith us today.
If you would like to learnanything and everything about I
Need Blue, visit my website,wwwinadebluenet.
And remember you are strongerthan you think.
Until next time, thank you.
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