Kevin retires after 41 years of saving lives
Oban ambulance team leader Kevin Devine has retired after more than four decades of caring for patients and saving lives.
The 62-year-old, who is Oban born and bred, will be swapping ambulances to spend more time on classic cars in his role as chairman and secretary of Oban and District Classic Vehicle Club.
Mr Devine spent his last day on duty on Tuesday as team leader at the Miller Road ambulance station with colleagues and cake.
When he started out with the Scottish Ambulance Service in 1978, wages were just £38.80 a week and he worked from a room in the town’s old Dalintart Hospital before moving to the new Miller Road station later that year.
At that time there were just six staff. Nowadays, there are 23 people covering 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
‘I’ve seen lots of changes. Everything has changed, from uniforms to vehicles and patient treatments. When I did my training I never thought I would be injecting drugs into patients as these were skills that only doctors used years ago,’ he said.
Over the years he has used lifeboats, helicopters, rowing boats, police Landrovers and even a tractor and trailer on Kerrera once to reach patients in the more rural areas.
‘There have been good outcomes and, unfortunately, some bad outcomes. One of the most memorable of the good ones was when myself and colleagues used our new defibrillator on a patient who’d collapsed in the street with a heart attack.
‘We shocked his heart back into rhythm and by the time we reached the hospital he was sitting up talking to us. This was the first successful resuscitation in Argyll using the new Heartstart equipment ambulances had,’ said Mr Devine, who lives with his wife in the town.
For the past 20 years, Mr Devine has been team leader at the Oban station as well as being responsible for staff on Mull and Tiree. He has also served as team leader for Argyll and the area service manager for Argyll and Bute.
He added: ‘I recently met a lady in the supermarket who introduced me to her daughter telling me I had assisted in her birth during one of the many maternity runs down to the Vale of Leven maternity unit.
‘The daughter then introduced me to her daughter and that was when I realised just how long I’d been in the job!
‘In fact, the majority of my colleagues were not born when I started out in the ambulance service.’
As well as keeping his Volvo 224, the oldest vehicle in his classic car fleet, on the road, Mr Devine will be busy arranging club events, catching up on some DIY and lending his wife a hand with gardening.