For my project I went and shadowed, Laura Elford, who is a paramedic for the Livingston Station in Columbus. I was able to shadow, experience, and learn a lot in 4 days.
Day 1: Thursday, March 29th, was my first day of shadowing. On this day Laura showed me around the station and got to meet people. I learned a lot of things the first day. When they get a call from there 911 operator place and they have to go somewhere, they call it a 'run'. They have two big firetrucks and one is mainly used for fire and medical purposes because it has a very long hose. It is just called the water truck. The other big fire truck is mainly used for tools and hard to reach fires or having to get someone from high points. This truck mainly has the tools needed to maybe cut something or saw something. When the workers aren't on a run they have some free time. In the station there is a big room with bunch of comfortable chairs and a big TV. They have a workout room that is in the basement and they can eat whenever they want but they can't go out and get fast food unless they are in a truck or ambulance because they have to be prepared to go on a run at all times when they are on duty. Overall on the first day it was all about learning.
Day 2: Friday, March 30th, was my second day and I got to go on two runs. It was so crazy because I actually got to be inside an ambulance and I even helped out. The first one wasn't anything too crazy but I helped carry the monitor in and we went inside. An older man had troubles breathing and we gave him a different breathing machine to try to help his breathing. He was apparently a regular. After he took the breathing machine we headed back to the fire station. Then right before lunch we got another call for us to go out. It was another older man but he was living by himself. He looked like he didn't take good care of himself. He was able to walk and talk but just felt miserable. He asked to go to the hospital so we took him to Mount Caramel. We got him a wheel chair because he was so weak that he fell. We brought him inside and let the nurses know what was going on. After, we headed back. It was really cool to experience taking a patient to the hospital. We got to eat and then I headed home.
Day 3: Saturday, March 31st was my third day and we got two runs. In the morning we got a run and the guy just was psycho and he just had breathing problems. He wouldn't stop talking but no one really knew what he was saying. He didn't look too well so we took him to the hospital. On the way to the hospital we have to make sure to take there blood pressure and an IV. The hospital took care of him. We didn't have another run until the next hour or so, so we talked a little more about schooling. Then, we got our second call and it was a guy around 60 or so and he was unconscious. Since they called for both ambulance, I stayed in the ambulance because I didn't want to get in the way. They had to carry him out on a stretcher. He kept falling asleep and wouldn't respond so Laura had to yell his name to keep waking him up. His IV wouldn't go in because he was so sick. So we walked him into the hospital with a stretcher and he got taken care of.
Day 4: Monday, April 16th ,the very last day of shadowing, we mainly just did some follow up questions for an interview. We did have to go on one run and it was an easy one. An older woman had just some troubles breathing due to asthma. She was very easy to treat and help, she was also very sweet. Overall, the last day was laid back and just going over a few things.