No two days the same for this ambo
This month, St John Taupo¯ intensive care paramedic Keith Fischer marks 40 years since he joined the ambulance service. He talked to LAURILEE McMICHAEL about making a difference in people’s lives.
blood in a patient, the aim being to get them quickly to hospital for definitive care.”
For an intensive care paramedic, the next step is rapid sequence intubation training, which qualifies a paramedic to administer drugs to, anaesthetise and intubate (place a breathing tube in the trachea). The training is a post graduate university paper and a pass of at least B+ is required.
But Keith has taken a different step, enrolling to study theology through his church, St Andrews in Taupo¯.
“A question we often ask ourselves is, ‘where God is in this?’ Tragedy, incidents, big small or major disasters. I believe God is in the people that come to help, first responders ambulance fire and police, first aiders. Doctors, nurses, radiographers, social workers, chaplains and other hospital staff. God uses all, Christian, Jew, Muslim, any faith or no faith at all, to bring love and care into that situation.”
Keith has no regrets about that decision to swap a mechanic’s toolbox for a paramedic’s kit.
“It’s been a wonderful career. You literally come to work, and you’ve got no clue what you’re going to do. You could be tidying up someone’s poor old nana who’s fallen over, or in a wrecked car down a bank. There’s no two days the same.”