About Dawson County news. (Dawsonville, Georgia) 2015-current | View Entire Issue (July 17, 2019)
6A I DAWSON COUNTY NEWS I dawsonnews.com Wednesday, July 17,2019 Josh needs a job: Paramedic Photos by Joshua Demarest Dawson County News Paramedic Justin Mitchell checks the equipment and medication in the ambulance known as 'Med 2' at the beginning of his shift. j The Station 2 fleet stands assembled and ready for a call. By Joshua Demarest jdemarest@dawsonnews.com It was a somber Friday morning when I pulled into Dawson County Emergency Services Station 2. The sun was having trouble rising above the remnants of the rainstorm that had blown through the night before, and I was nervous. There. I said it. I was nervous. I had been planning this monthly column for a while where I go out and spend a day trying out different jobs around Dawson County, and when Dawson County Fire and Emergency Services Director Danny Thompson asked if Ed like to go on a ride-along with his crew, it had seemed like a good way to start it off at the time. But now I was here, and that little voice in my head was asking if I was really cut out for this. It didn’t take long to find out. It was shift change when I got there, and I fell in with paramedic Justin Mitchell. He was an immediate presence in the room, loud and humorous in direct con trast with many of the others in the garage, who had just finished a 24-hour shift. Mitchell took me through the process of checking the ambulance to make sure the equip ment was in proper order. We had barely finished when our first call came in. I put on my standard- issue Dawson County Emergency Services vest and jumped in the back, camera in hand. As the ambulance sped out of the station, my stomach tightened into a knot of anticipation. The scene wasn’t pret ty. There was a single motorcycle crash on 400, right by the entrance for Chick-Fil-A and Home Depot, and the injuries were bad, though thank fully not life-threatening. Mitchell, the paramedic on the scene, immediately took control of the first responders and EMT Mike O’Connor, directing medical care and admin istering medication. It was fascinating to see the immediate change in Mitchell, who had been joking and laughing just a few minutes before. Now he was all business. I was surprised by how much went into a scene like this — multiple police units from Dawson County Sheriff’s Office and Georgia State Patrol had responded first and were directing traffic and gathering statements. The fire truck from station two had arrived just ahead of us, and the amount of activity was a little overwhelming. Not wanting to be in the way, I stood on the out skirts of the area, watching as Mitchell and O’Connor loaded the injured motorist onto the stretcher and into the ambulance. This time I sat up front with O’Connor as we drove toward Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Gainesville, the closest hospital with a trau ma center. At 7 months on the job, O’Connor is one of the newer faces on the team. This was his second straight 24-hour shift, as he was covering for someone who needed the day off. As we drove, I watched the screen that showed what was going on in the back. On the ride to the hospital, Mitchell was on the phone with the doctor at Northeast Georgia, col lecting patient informa tion, and providing medi cal care. After dropping the patient off, I rode in the back and listened as Mitchell and O’Connor jammed out to Credence Clearwater Revival. When we stopped, we were at Chick-Fil-A for breakfast. That’s life for the EMTs, firefighters and paramedics in Dawson County — everybody is joking around and having fun until duty calls, and then it’s a pressure cooker of literal life-and-death decisions. “We have to be able to decompress,” explained O’Connor. “If we didn’t, it would eat you up.” When asked about his favorite part of the day, Mitchell also touched on the time he gets to decom press with his coworkers. “As a shift, that’s our station, after dinner we all sit down and have what’s called Cigar Time,” Mitchell told me, laugh ing. “It’s spending time with these guys, sitting down as a family and just spending time eating din ner and smoking cigars.” The thing that caught me the most off-guard about my time with the Dawson County Fire and Emergency Services team was how much of a tight- knit team they really are. Their job is tougher than I can imagine. In the course of a single shift, they may be responding to a fatal car crash, deal ing with a child’s head trauma, running towards a burning building, helping educate parents or care givers on proper proce dure for minor medical issues, and saving some one’s life. That’s more life-and-death scenarios than many of us will have in an entire lifetime, all in one day. Plus, these men and women are charged with interacting with members of the community on what may be the worst day of their lives. Very rarely are ambulance rides remembered fondly. But they come back every third day to do it again. I’ve worked in many jobs in my life — from security to waiting tables, from theater sound design to zoo animal handler — and I went into this expe rience thinking I had seen a lot. But nothing pre pared me for witnessing how much courage and heart our paramedics, firefighters and EMTs put into their job. As a man who makes a living with words, it’s exceedingly rare that I find myself speechless. Just ask my wife. But words genu inely fail me when I try to express how grateful I am to have gotten the chance to ride along with the men and women of Dawson County Fire and Emergency Services. All I can say is thank you. They always say not to meet your heroes, but I disagree. Meeting these guys was one of the most humbling and powerful experiences of my life, and they are definitely my heroes. Editor's Note: This is the first in a monthly series of col umns where Josh Demarest goes around town shadow ing and trying his hand at various jobs. If you have a job that you'd like to see Josh try, send us an email at editor@dawsonnews.com. Modern Business Requires Modern Connectivity More cloud. More devices. More applications. Your business needs more to do more. We’ve brought world-class Internet speeds, innovative communications solutions, and expertise — once available only in really big cities — to your community. 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