From responding to late-night 911 calls to rushing through the city to save someone’s life, the duties of first responders stretch far and wide. On duty, they strive to put their all into helping citizens in need, and their role extends to community members.
There are multiple ways first responders help a community. For emergency medical service [EMS], Christian County Field Supervisor Paramedic David Hoover said the primary role of EMS is to help convey injured people.
“Our primary job as an ambulance service is medical transportation,” Hoover said. “We pick people up from wherever they are, and we get them to an emergency room or to wherever they need to go, and then our secondary [job], we also are responding and providing care during emergencies. We try to prevent death or further injury, and we try to relieve pain.”
Support from the community assists first responders.
“Being able to physically and emotionally feel the support of the community is huge,” emergency medical technician at Christian County Ambulance District Christie Thompson said.
With the threat of mass casualty incidents, first responders have structured plans to effectively deal with situations that may come their way.
“What we do is go in and you immediately start trying to find as many patients as possible,” Hoover said. We go to the people that are hurt the worst, and we try to make sure that they don’t die in the next few minutes, and we get them transported out of the way first.”
Thompson said he feels a sense of safety when he is supported by the community.
“We are blessed here in Christian County that we have a very supportive community,” Thompson said.“We have that safety from the community, knowing that they’re supportive.”
In dangerous, life-threatening situations, Nixa Fire Battalion Chief Brian Loula said that teamwork is a vital aspect of firefighting.
“We train together,” Loula said.“We spend a third of our lives together. … We kind of can read each other’s minds. We know what each other expects, and so in those high-stress situations, we’re all kind of making that same move and going in the right direction.”
Teamwork for first responders involves collaboration between multiple branches at once.
“Law enforcement helps to keep scenes safe for us,” Hoover said.“A lot of times we’re called to a scene that maybe has a drug overdose, they have had an assault [or] they’ve had something that might be dangerous for us. So they come and they make sure that the scene is safe, and then we come in and we’ll take care of the patients.”
With this dangerous line of work, many stress factors are involved.
“The hardest part of that [working as an EMT is] we’re driven to help, but we can’t guarantee the outcome,” Thompson said. “In the back of our mind, a lot of times, we know what the potential outcome is, but knowing that we can’t alter that.”
Hoover said another difficult part about his job is bouncing from serious, life-altering calls to easier calls.
“The other hard thing is that you may go see that really terrible thing, then we take them to the hospital and then the next thing you got to turn around and go to the nursing home or somebody’s home and pick up grandma,” Hoover said. “The most that she really needs is somebody to hold her hand while we take her to the hospital. So you’re switching back and forth … and that’s a roller coaster that’s hard for people.”
The intensity of these jobs is another factor that increases the stress on first responders.
“House fires are an intense time,” Loula said. “You go from … resting heart rate 60-80, beats per minute to your radio going off and someone’s house is on fire. Maybe there’s somebody inside. Now, your adrenaline’s through the roof. Your heart rate just skyrockets. You have so much relying on you.”
A support system can be beneficial for first responders as they witness traumatic events.
“[We’ve] got a pretty close community here in our officers and our supervisors,” Nixa Police Drug Abuse Resistance Education Officer [D.A.R.E] Brent Forgey said. “Our supervisors … offer us assistance counseling that we can get. I know for real traumatic events, we’ve had counselors come in and just talk to the group officers that were involved and see if there’s any issues they have and we get mental health evaluations yearly.”
There are mental health resources specially made for first responders.
“There are a lot of mental health programs specifically for first responders,” Thompson said. “Free of cost, whether it’s local organizations, the hospitals both have those, and a lot of the agencies have direct programs too.”
With the dangerous environments first responders face, Loula said it’s the motivation and passion for his job that drives him to go out and save lives.
“Being able to help people in their worst times is what really drives me,’ Loula said. “Being able to go out and on those days where someone calls and says, ‘Hey man this is the worst time in my life,’ and you’re able to make a difference and see that smile on their face and appreciate what you’ve done.”
