On the Job

Adrian Santiago Sr. has been saving lives in Cape Coral for the past seven years. As an EMT for Lee County Emergency Medical Services, he's part of a team of two dozen people and six ambulances that are the first response to every medical emergency in Cape Coral from broken toes to heart attacks. Before working for Lee County, Santiago got intensive on-the-job training as an EMT in the Navy. Today his workweek cycles, with 24 hours on-shift at one of Cape Coral's fire stations, followed by 48 hours off duty.

What's a shift like? I get there at 7 a.m. The shift before tells us what's missing on the ambulance and what was used. We do a check of the ambulance, wash it, and do other chores and station duties. I try to get a nap in because the shift is 24 hours. The rest of the day is spent studying [to keep up with protocol] or standing by, waiting for calls.

How many calls do you get a day? It depends on the area. Our busiest stations [in Lee] get from 10 to 15 calls a day. You never know when those calls are coming. You could have no calls during the day and be up all night. Last year we ran just under 75,000 calls. I think we're going to surpass that this year. We're one of the top five busiest counties in Florida.

What happens when you get a call? You have two minutes from the time of call until you have to be en route. Dispatch keeps track of where you are in the call-transporting to the hospital, arriving at the hospital, available at the hospital. The firemen are hopefully there first, doing initial basic life support. You're supposed to be on scene no more than 10 minutes before you're transporting. It's not like the hospital with a controlled setting. This is it. We're keeping them alive. We call it the golden hour. When someone gets hit by a vehicle, they're so unstable. From the time of the call, you have one hour to get them to the operating room.

That must be nerve-racking. I like to think that you get in that zone where you're there to help the person. You try to block everything else out. You're it; you're the help. There's no one else. You do a little bit of everything: you're a cardiologist, a neurologist, a psychologist. You gotta do what you gotta do.

-Rebecca Loveridge