Longest-serving paramedic

zzyzx

zzyzx

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I'm wondering if it's known who is the longest-serving paramedic in the U.S. I know a medic who's been working full time since about 1975.
 
I believe we have a volunteer in his early 80s who has been working since his 20s.
 
You might find the answer somewhere in there :P

fyi it's ~57 minutes long

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqD_w4gFa0E[/YOUTUBE]
 
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zzyzx said:
I'm wondering if it's known who is the longest-serving paramedic in the U.S. I know a medic who's been working full time since about 1975.
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You mean an individual with a license # of 1 that was a paramedic when Jesus was a first responder, right?


Taken from wikipedia (so could be wrong):

"Pittsburgh's Freedom House paramedics are credited as the first EMT trainees in America"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paramedics_in_the_United_States
 
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My understanding is that the Daniel Freeman Paramedic Institute was the first paramedic program. It was established in 1970. I'm wondering if anyone knows not who was the first paramedic, but who is the longest-serving one.
 
zzyzx said:
My understanding is that the Daniel Freeman Paramedic Institute was the first paramedic program. It was established in 1970. I'm wondering if anyone knows not who was the first paramedic, but who is the longest-serving one.
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Freeman was the first p-school to be accredited. Medic One in Seattle started in '69, and Pittsburgh was sometime before that, 67 or 68.

http://www.freedomhousedoc.com/6.html

I'd be very surprised if any of those original classes were still running calls. No idea how you would find out.
 
Know some guys at Wishard...

Or used to be Wishard, now Indianapolis EMS who've been around a while,

dixie_flatline, you're avatar is awesome!:excl:
 
We have a guy here who pre-dates the 1972 mobile life support unit (intensive care officer) pilot project ....
 
I worked with a guy when I first started who has a senority date of 1968. He is still working, but I think he is going to retire this year. I also worked with a guy now in his 70's. He was forced to retire when he was 65 (over 10 yrs ago), but fought it and won. I think he worked one day after then quit and now works part time on a PTU,(patient transfer unit).
 
Rotor Talker said:
Or used to be Wishard, now Indianapolis EMS who've been around a while,
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I work at IEMS now, and quite a few quit during the merger, but a few are still here.
 
my mentor just retired from LAFD, he was paramedic class 3 at PTI circa 1971ish. he spent 38 years as a full time paramedic (single function) before trading his P-card for a B-card.
 
Johnny and Roy!?! :P
 
little known fact, orange county fire authority had paramedics on the street 1 month prior to LA county to bad those squad jockeys get all the glory.
 
Our most senior guy at work has a seniority date in 1968. He started off as an RN, but didn't like being the only male RN around back then and switched over to Ambulance. His pension has long since matured but at this point he's planning on working until 70 at least.

This is a guy that makes any more junior medic seem lazy. He still works full time AND takes OT shifts. He works out of one the busiest stations in the region, never bothers to take his meal/rest breaks, has the highest call count in the whole region and on top of all the emerg calls he does, he's always on the dispatch phone looking for transfers. Only time I've seen him just sit and watch TV is when the Price is Right is on.

He could have switched to any of the quieter bases. He could hop right into one of the ESU spots when they open, driving the multi-patient unit to MCI's and fire standby's and doing not much else, but he won't leave his spot right in the action.

Oh and his partner is only a couple years younger than he is and has second seniority spot.
 
Good morning all. My first time out on this forum, just found it.

I went to work on Houston Fire Dept Ambulance on April 10, 1971. We didn't know what we were doing, we were taking over from funeral homes so lifesaving had not been a big priority. We taught ourselves mostly, there was no structured EMS program.

The first day at work in the afternoon my partner and I pulled a 5 year old boy out of a pool and did mouth to mouth and CPR to the hospital. The kid lived and I was hooked. I retired after 25 years in HFD in one of the hottest houses in town (over 500 runs per month, average). I am still in the business, doing fun stuff, working rock concerts.

Glad to meet all y'all, looks like an interesting place here.

# My grandson, no training except CPR, was hired by a hospital to work ER assistance. He got involved in CPR on his first day at work too, and as he told me
"Papaw, I'm hooked"
He had that look on his face that told me that he couldn't believe what he had just helped accomplish. He's hooked, :):)and I love it.
 
RockDoc said:
Good morning all. My first time out on this forum, just found it.
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Welcome to EMTLife!! Be sure to tell your friends about us.
 
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That's awesome rockdog. I just started volunteering at cypress creek and I can see why you stuck with it for so long.
 
One of our supervisors, Ernie Foster, claims to be the longest continually certified paramedic in LA. Not sure how much weight that carries though.
 
Let's get Serious!

Let's really find the top 20 and make up some sort of a reward, a plaque or something useful, like a back brace or Foley Catheter and bag.

And we're limiting this to medics CONTINUOUSLY working in the field, aren't we? If your ACTIVITY expired in 1985 but you kept up your certs and you went to management that doesn't really qualify.

So let's see if we can really figure who are the top 20 (or fifty!) hacks who have continuously worked in EMS with patients. This means we can move BACK start dates to include their earliest, legitimate (paid or Volly) entry into ambulance work; even if it was transporting on an oxcart, as long as it has been continuous service since.

We can call it the EMS Mother Teresa Award!
 
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