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Hi, Chris. Well, have a good shift. Thanks. Take care. Thank you. So what'd you do on your vacation?
I went on a cruise to Mexico. Mexico so much fun
Yeah, what'd you do while you were down there? We went to three ports stopped off at Cabo
Mazatlan and Porta Vallarta, and I got to swim with dolphins and do a horseback ride
Any cabin boys? No, not so that
From that seven code three
In rock
Hey guys, I just got a call from dispatch. They're low levels. You guys about ready to go. Yeah, we're ready. Thank you. No problem
My name is Ray Erickson. I'm a paramedic for American Medical Response in Alameda County
Kind of my segue into becoming a paramedic was that
The Alameda County Fire Department had a program where they would teach
Citizens in neighborhoods how to take care of themselves in the events of a disaster. I was called Nurt training
neighborhood emergency rescue training
and they had a poster board that had people
jumping out of helicopters and climbing mountains and doing swift water rescue and and that all sounded really interesting so I asked
How you got involved in that? And they said we put your name here. We do a background check on you
Do an interview and if we like you then we invite you to join you have a lot of training you have to do and if you pass the
training then you're allowed if we need need you and we paid you to go out and look for missing people
Anytime that we would go on a search
you could either sit around base or
You could go out and be active and actually go hopefully find somebody and the people that had more
Training and experience
We're always going out before me and this is mainly in mutual aid searches when we assist with other counties and so
It was always a case of well. Why is that guy going out before me as well? He has high and low-angle
Training so I got the high and low-angle training
And the next one was why is that guy going out? Well, he has swift water rescue training
so I became swift water rescue certified and the the last part of it was that I thought I had everything and there's
Still people going out doing their job before me. Why are they going out? Well? He's an EMT. I
Didn't even know what an EMT was
so I found out what it was and and how you get that
certification and I did that and
Next thing I know one of the guys that's in search and rescue with me is with a more
And he suggested it be a good idea for me to come and play on an ambulance because he thought that I would really like it
So I went to play on an ambulance and I really liked it
Good morning 512's in service
512 copy code 3
512 go ahead with traffic
512 code 3 at Mulford Park 13055 Aurora Drive crosses Walnut Drive, West Avenue 130
512 copy show some room. Let's do it
responding for a 26 year old male GSW
My name is Ann Wong and I'm originally from Fresno, California
But I've been up in the Bay Area for about 13 years now. I
went to EMT school in
1999 after working as a medical assistant for the Kaiser Permanente system
for three years and just wanted to practice medicine outside of a doctor's office
So thought that EMT was the way to go
Was kind of interested in the emergency aspect of it
so decided to do EMT school at Chabot College in Hayward and
completed school and
Got with AMR in Alameda County in 2000
Then there ever since
It's just a great county to work for I enjoy the Bay Area and
it is
95% the people that you work with you can
Get on shift with somebody. That's a complete stranger 12 hours later. You guys are best of friends
Hi, my name is Bronson Tony. I grew up here in Alameda County
I was pretty lucky I always knew I'd be a firefighter just because my dad was a firefighter as well as my grandpa
And I just knew I'd always be a fireman is like number one job is either playing the NFL and the Major League Baseball or becoming a fireman and
I ended up becoming a fireman. It's
You know, it's just a great brotherhood. It's like a sport and it's another family. So I was lucky enough to you know end up getting in this band
With a bunch of guys I work with and another good friend and we just really made it a lot of fun
It's a fun band. We basically just get together and jam make a couple new songs. We go perform them and people really like them
And you know Contra souls is just a good outlet for me. It's just something we do in our four days
Something for me to kind of get away from the real life
It's crazy
Working in Alameda County, it's all about your crew, you know, your crew is your backbone
You're only strong as your weeks link like I said, and I just really have a great crew
And they've molded me to be where I am today
And you know, we just have a lot of good times on on calls and you know, we do help a lot of people
And we get to see the difference that we make
Can you touch that?
Yeah, do you have the W?
Do you have the W, man? It's at the park
It's down there right now
Right across from the school?
Yeah, right there
Right there, man
Does that leave you gangland stuff or did they say how many victims?
I'm only just one guy, I'm a person
Cool, hang on
I got it, let's go
County District 10, 3450, respond to a medical 1305, Aurora Drive, Mulford Park, County Underground, 26-year-old male gunshot wound
Okay guys, he advised the update is 26-year-old gunshot wound to the chest
And with possible gang activity, we're going to proceed with caution
Sounds good, Cap
Hey, my name's Ray, what's your name?
Alright, alright, alright, alright
I'm going to take the shirt off and find out what's going on, alright?
One of the important things about a situation where the GSW is that
There's a lot of teams involved
In Alameda County, we work a one-on-one system where there's one paramedic and one EMT
And because of that, I understand that my role as the EMT is very important in the system because BLS comes before ALS
Our EMTs are very well trained, they're very well motivated, they keep us all safe and we just couldn't do our job without them
And quite often they are missed when we talk about what we do and they shouldn't be missed
It's a huge group effort, I understand that it's not just all about us three individuals getting off the rig, it's about the police
Seeing safety, it's about the paramedics and the EMTs transporting that patient to the hospital as soon as possible
Are we taking a rider?
We're going to cut three traumaties
Alright, listen buddy, I'm going to give you five more for you, okay?
It'll make you feel a little bit better, don't move
Good morning Eden, this is ALS Unit 512 coming in Code 3 with a trauma activation
On board is a 24, 2-4 year old male with multiple gunshot wounds to the left chest and left abdomen
I've talked to a lot of people that have come here from other counties because they know Alameda County
A lot of them more specifically know Oakland and they want to work in that kind of system
What they don't know is exactly how busy we are
Not everybody can work our system because of the volume and the variety of calls that we run
You could be in San Leandro delivering a baby, you could be in Hayward on the freeway at a motor vehicle accident
Or you could be fighting a wildland fire out in Livermore, you just never know what to expect
The AMS system is very busy
We have a lot of people coming here from other places in the country
Those that have come to visit have said
That a month here is equal to a year anywhere else
When I go on vacation and people ask me what I do and I tell them and they ask me where
And I tell them Alameda County or Oakland, I always get the same response and it's always wow
My name is Lucinda Ronaldo and I'm a paramedic in Alameda County
Initially when I started doing this job it was very important for me to work in the community that I lived
I felt like it kept me honest, there's no way that I could go into my job and do it halfway
Or treat people in a way that I wouldn't want to have to deal with later because I might run into them
Initially that was very important to me
I think as time has gone on it's just been more of a fact of life
The initial desire to live and work in the same community is kind of replaced by the fact that this is just who I am
My name is Lisa Lease-White and I'm a paramedic in Alameda County
It personalizes it in a good way in that I'm in my community helping my community
And I know that because I live there and it's definitely in my community
In a way it is a good thing that I don't drive X amount of miles to work every morning
And get in an ambulance and drive around a completely foreign area to me
I actually drive away from my neighborhood to pick up my ambulance and then I drive back to my neighborhood
And that's where I do my work
9-1-1, I need a paramedic, I'm having some chest pains
5-5-3-6-3-8, Gradel Lane crosses Amberway, Cinnabar Drive, 7-15, David-2
Your patient is a 62 year old male chest pain
In layman's terms a STEMI is a blockage in an artery in the heart which is very life threatening
It needs immediate action, they need to get in there, get to the cath lab and get that blockage cleared out of the artery
So that the blood is getting to the heart like it should be
For us I think this is a true seconds count, life and death, quality of life emergency
We can have this unit 5-5-5 in main code 3, we have a 62 year old male cold STEMI
I'm an awful lot of people decided to become paramedics after 9-11
Because they wanted to be heroes, they wanted to look good to everybody else and things like that
It's not the reason that we become paramedics, the people that become paramedics and stay as paramedics
Are the people that just primarily want to help
This job is not about heroics and glory, this job is a lot about people and empathy and how you want to treat people
If you have a big heart for your community, this is a job for you, if you like to help people in the community, this is a job for you
Not everybody can do it
This job is not cookies and creams and you go home with a lot
I think the greatest thing that this job gives you is the ability to be a witness to good and bad
That's why I got into it, I was young and I wanted to see my city and my world and life from all angles and get paid for it, and I do
If you see anything on any given day, that will make you open your eyes to life
This job is not about heroics and glory, this job is a lot about people and empathy and how you want to treat people in the community
This job is not about heroics and glory, this job is a lot about people and empathy and how you want to treat people in the community
This job is not about heroics and glory, this job is a lot about people and empathy and how you want to treat people in the community
All maxed out in need of a hero, we've reached level zero
We've reached level zero
