In my 25 years in many aspects of EMS I have never worked a day in my life. You will notice that none of my answers have the words “work or job” in it because work to me is something you dread and a job is something you do until you find your career. I was Perry Medic to my patients and it wasn’t really a career, but it was my life and what I looked forward to every single day.

1. What is your current title & some of your previous experience? 
Right now I am a Safety Training Manager for Bigge Crane & Rigging, my career was ended 7 years ago lifting a 650lb pt. Even with 6 people total, the years of lifting people finally took its toll. Over the course of 25 years I did Search & Rescue for the Navy, Combat Medic in the Army and was a firefighter and/or medic. 

2. What is your favorite part of working for your department?
To sound corny I have to say taking someone at their worst and giving them the opportunity to be on this earth with their loved ones for a little while longer. With some it might be an hour, day, week, month or years, but it is more time than it would have been if it wasn’t for the team work of the EMS crew that responded to you. Also every day is different, you never know what that shift holds for you and is continuously keeps you on your toes, wanting to expand your knowledge and give the best possible care.

 3. How do you define success?
 In this career, to me success in the field of EMS is doing your best each and every day, working with a team to achieve a goal and striving to learn something new every day and pass on the knowledge that you have to those willing to learn. Knowing that we can’t save everybody, but we can sure give them our best and in the end of the day being able to look yourself in the mirror and feel good about yourself. 

4. What have you learned over your lifetime that you'd like to share with the younger generation?
1 - To the EMT’s, you’re not JUST an EMT, you are responsible for the important things like Airway, Breathing and Circulation. Don’t just be a driver, ask questions, be part of the team, understand why your medic partner is doing what he/she is doing so that when you are in that seat you will want to teach your EMT partner. It only makes a better team and that is always better for the patient. 2 – Leave your prejudices at the door, you are not there to judge anyone, no matter who they are. Everyone is part of someone’s family and you need to treat them as you want your family treated 3- Don’t be a “clipboard” medic, don’t be afraid to get down to your patients level, touch them and let them know you are going to do everything you can to help them, but don’t lie to them. Once you do that and they catch you, your credibility is shot and that cooperative patient is now an uncooperative one. And lastly 4 – If you ever get burned out, dread that pager or tones going off and don’t want to be there, then turn in your uniform and stay home. When those people call 911 they are expecting and should get someone that truly wants to be there and care for them, not someone just going through the motions, you need to hold on to why we got into this field in the first place.

 5. What is your favorite hobby?
Fishing, hiking, biking, running and photography.

6. Who has had the greatest influence on you?
Jim Holbrook, my paramedic instructor at Crafton Hills College in Yucaipa.  That man was absolutely amazing and really knew how to bring out the best of all of his students. He would do scenario’s, like the one time he walked in, threw up coffee grounds and lay on the ground and said “now treat me”. He would have us do our assessment and treatment and when it got to the point of “at this time I would establish and I.V” he would have us do it. By the end of the day he would be walking around with band aids all over his arms. Absolutely incredible, and if he can teach me A&P, he could teach anyone.

 7. What will be your legacy? Is the world better because of you/your work/your influence?
 I think everyone in EMS would like to think so, that there is something they leave behind or a life they touched that will be their legacy. I was lucky to have both. I was responsible for getting the Flex Guide ET Tube Introducer implemented into the field in the Riverside
Division AMR. The use of that device in the field has helped medics get the tough intubations that at other times would be hard to get.  The other was that I was able to help teach EMT’s on how to be a medic, not necessary try to make them a like me, but to show them what they already had inside of them to truly get what we, in EMS, are here for. One such EMT was my friend Eric Williams, he was an incredible EMT, a sponge for knowledge. I always told him that no matter what the situation, no matter how bad it is, always remain calm on the outside, because your patients, the people that called you, need reassurance that you got this. He was great with people, had incredible skills and he always remained calm. He took that knowledge and training and became a Combat Medic in the Army, assigned to 82nd Airborne Division and was a flight medic. At his funeral this July one of the soldiers he saved after being shot numerous times remembers dying and opening his eyes. He said that he expected to open his eyes and see how bad his injuries were on Eric’s face, but
instead when he opened his eyes all he saw was Eric’s goofy smile and in a calm voice Eric said “ I see you zigged when you should have zagged huh Jones”. When I heard that story I knew that what I had shown him what he had inside continued to help save numerous soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was killed July 23rd, 2012.

 8. What's the funniest work story/ event you remember?
There are so many, but one that sticks out is when we had just watched “Super Troopers” at the station and we got a call for shortness of breath. When you are out in the field for a long time you pretty much get a feel for your patients and how you can converse with them. We arrived on scene and the firefighter bet me I couldn’t say “legs” 10 times in my assessment. After initial assessment on the patient and vital signs and sensing she had a good sense of humor “Ma’am, did your legs hurt before your shortness of breath?” “no”, I asked a couple more questions then “ When you breathe in deep do your legs hurt?” “no” – after asking multiple questions and getting the “legs” reference in about 6 times she looked at me and said with a big smile “Super Troopers?” “yes ma’am” “how many more do you have to go?” “4” “go ahead and get it over with” – it was pretty funny. One other time is I always taught my EMT’s to call their patients by either their name or sir/ma’am, not sweetheart, dear or anything like that. One time we went on a 90ish y/o female and I had my EMT doing the assessment and he kept calling her “sweetheart”. After the second time she looked annoyed and after the 4th time she said “young man, are we dating?” The EMT said no and she told him that her name was Dorothy and not sweetheart. It was classic and he never called a patient sweetheart or dear again. 

9. Is there anything I haven't asked about that you would care to comment on?
To the medics, I can’t emphasize enough about making your partner part of the team. Let them run the calls at times and help them improve their skills under your direction. It all comes down to basics regardless of what letter is after EMT. I’ve seen too many medics get the “paragod” mentality and all they do is limit themselves, isolate the people around them and rob their patients of the best possible care. We are not here for our egos and accolades, we are here for that person in front of you looking to you for help, we owe it to them to give them the best possible care. 

10. What is your favorite dinner & what do you drink with it?
Anything BBQ, especially ribs and my homemade BBQ sauce that actually will be on the market hopefully early next year. But besides that one of my favorites is chicken on a bed of artichokes marinated with dry vermouth topped with mushrooms and salsa mixed with cheese, with baked artichokes with garlic olive oil, balsamic vinegar and garlic pepper served with a nice Papapietro Perry Pinot Noir 2007

Perry Churchill
 Safety Training Manager
Bigge Crane

I first became interested in EMS in 1985 when I was in the Navy. Me and a friend was on a bus in Israel and there was a lady that had a heart attack. The bus was filled with people and no one knew what to do, not even me. The bus driver was rushing to the hospital while all any of us could do was watch her die, which she did. It had to be the most helpless feeling I had ever felt and I swore from that point on I would never feel that way again. I became a volunteer firefighter in Chesapeake, VA and Search & Rescue in the Navy. Over the course of the next 25 years I continued my career as a firefighter and/or medic, Combat Medic in the Army and going on 25 years of teaching CPR/First aid so that no one will feel helpless when someone is in need

The ear piercing screech of the firefighter locator beacon coupled with the screaming engine trying to pump the water & hysterical yells of the family & neighbors was a bit overwhelming at the moment. How I wish I could shut off this cacophony... my head was starting to hurt. My right side began to feel very wet... I look over and the snake coils of the water hoses were leaking badly, spraying cold water onto my side. The fountain of water coming out was almost refreshing on this hot, humid, muggy night. Just seconds earlier two firefighters tumbled down a flight a stairs trying to carry a 250+lb man.
 
"You alright man?!" I scream at him, trying to battle through the chaos of the noise. "Yea!! Just check him out, damn it!" He yells back at me. As he tears his mask off, he looks visibly shaken... I would be too if I just somersaulted down a Victorian flight of stairs carrying guy on top of me. I turn my attention down at my knees where the patient that was tossed at me lay. The porch where we were was way too small for everything that it contained. Me, my partner, two firefighters, hoses, bags, a variety of fire equipment I can't even begin to name... and now a body... alive or not was for me to decide.

Moments earlier, I was peacefully munching on my mini-chocolate donuts downing it with a quart of milk... a gas station dinner of champions baby! at 1am on this busy night.... when our peaceful "dinner" gets interrupted by dispatch to a possible house fire "smoke coming from the 3rd story window." The area we were going to is well known for some impressive house fires... the houses are old... all made of wood... and they love to burn. Summer, Fall, Winter, Spring... egh whatever... season non-specific, they burned nonetheless. Knowing all of this, there were normally two outcomes... this was either nothing & we were going to be back in service in 10min or we were going to be there for rest of the night. "I hope it's burning man." My partner exclaims. "We EOT in 4 hours, and this would last us through the night!"

EMS is a weird kind of profession... in it other people's misery can occasionally make our life easier... sucks, but that is the way it is. My partner was right. The house was going to burn regardless of whether I wanted for it to burn or not. That decision was already made for us. People are going to get shot... whether I want them to or not. They are going to die... despite even some of my best efforts... that's just the way it is. For us to say, "I hope it's burning man" doesn't mean that we HOPE for houses to catch on fire... it just means that WHEN they catch on fire, that WE be the ones there for it. This is an interesting concept that no one outside of EMS rarely gets.

We get on scene just behind the fire department. Amazing. 1am. When it is a house fire, they beat us there in droves... when it is a "chest pain" call, I'll have the patient half way packaged before they show up. As we stage a block away from the scene, the fire command advises us that this is a working incident with one upstairs bedroom on fire. "Egh I don't see flames... they gonna have that thing out before we even get out of the truck. I'm not getting out." My partner exclaims. I went in the back to set the stretcher up just in case. I throw in: immobilization, monitor, jump bag, suction... drugs? Nah... I'll come back for them if need be. What else do I need? Blankets... nah... it's too hot out. I jump back in the front, and as soon as I do so, fire command advises that they have possibly two to three casualties in the upstairs bedroom and outside behind the house. "Well @#$@#$!" My partner exclaims again. I call for a 2nd truck as we now have a possible "confirmed" patient/s... the city is holding calls so my call is 3rd in line. Typical night indeed.

We get out & drag our heavily packed stretcher across the cobblestones to the front of the house... spectators have gathered far & wide... some look at us with awe... some with disdain for having awoken them at this time of night... others with pure boredom, I guess expecting to see flames or other sorts of excitement. Just as we get up to the porch, two firefighters tumble out of the front door having lost their footing on the stairs...

And now in front of me was a man... a body of a man... lying prone across the coils of the fire hoses... in front of the entire neighborhood. It was so loud... I could barely hear myself think. I begin to turn the patient over with my partner's assistance when the man's pant legs
slide off under my hands... and with his pants came his skin... all of his thigh & leg skin. He was a bigger man... and the fat underneath clearly reached the boiling point... I have never known fat could & would boil out of a human being... but it did... I hope never again to see it... my instinct already told me the verdict... but my brain has not quite caught up. I immediately open his airway & see a charred tongue & throat... pulseless... apneic... the decision became split second... and final. "He is a DOA!" I yell to the firefighter that brought him out... he is standing right next to me, but yelling was all that I could do to get him to hear me. "Are you @#$%ing serious!!!" He yells back. I wave my arms side to side indicating DOA. "NO!!! WTF man... you @#$@#ing work him man!!! WTFFF... NO!" He and the other firefighter angrily shove past me down the stairs off the outside porch ... in front of the entire neighborhood.

It was done. There was nothing more I could have done. I was the only paramedic on scene. I had the possibility of 2 more patients, and
no additional assist units within the foreseeable future. The man was dead. He boiled inside out. I made my decision. A split second decision. The toughest decision... a decision to officially call it what it was and to do it without hesitation, in front of the firefighters that "saved" this man from the burning building... in front of his family... in front of the neighborhood... all in the midst of a chaotic scene. Right decision? Wrong decision? Who cares... the end result is the same. I had two more patients to worry about, and this one became an afterthought... at that moment.

We in EMS are occasionally faced with split second decisions... and we make some of them without hesitation... because when we hesitate at the WRONG moment, people die... when we hesitate at the RIGHT moment, people live. But when is the RIGHT vs the WRONG moment? Who the hell knows... Like a police officer that has someone at gun point, and makes a split second decision to either pull or not to pull the trigger... I held in my hand the power of working the patient or not... work it, and my other more viable patients may die... not work it, and the patient... may have had a chance.... I guess in the end it really is all about chances... about statistics. At this point, all I really needed now were just two blankets... one to cover the body... the other to cover myself, as I was getting cold from getting soaked by the fire hose... but I didn't bring the blankets, I didn't think I would need them... plus I have other patients to worry about... I'll see them wet, and cold... it's not a problem... done it before... will do it again.............