Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Ex-Har-Ber athlete now serves as EMT
There was a certain adrenaline rush Amanda Dillon loved to experience when she ran track at Springdale Har-Ber, then later at Baylor.
She gets a similar feeling these days while doing her part against the recent coronavirus pandemic as she serves as an emergency medical technician in the Richmond, Va., area.
“Maybe I’m just an adrenaline junkie,” Dillon said. “I really don’t know. I just like the rush of it all.
“I love not knowing what’s going to happen next. Anything could always happen, and it’s super interesting. I love going out to the community and seeing people and where they live. “
The job is something Dillon is doing to fill the gap between colleges after she graduated from Baylor last May and earned her bachelor’s degree in medical humanities with a minor in biology. She will be moving shortly to Atlanta, where she will begin grad school classes at Emory University with hopes to become a nurse practitioner in an emergency room.
While she was at Baylor, she also attended a local community college and earned her EMT certification in 2017. Shortly after
her graduation, she went to Richmond — where her family now resides — and started working with American Medical Response.
“I did it because of the career path that I wanted to go in the medical field,” Dillon said. “I had heard about it, and I was mentored by some people while I was at Baylor that had done the EMT field. It sounded interesting to me because it’s a good learning experience.
“When I decided to take a gap year between graduation at Baylor and grad school, I said I would become an EMT because I have the
certification, and it looks good on a resume. You also learn so much because you see so many things out there.”
When Dillon first started her job, she said much of her normal day’s work would consist of moving patients from a local hospital to a rehab facility or moving critical patients from one hospital to another. That all changed last month when the covid-19 pandemic began to sweep the country.
She said the amount of work she does hasn’t changed, but her duties have been altered. Her work also caused her to deal with her share of those stricken with the recent virus.
“Our call volume has been down a little for now, but we expect it to spike up soon,” she said. “Obviously,
people aren’t coming to the hospital for the little things because they are afraid and they’re told to stay home.
“I have transported several covid-positive patients, and that’s the big change because now I’m super aware of what I am touching. I am trying to keep everything super-contained, and of course I’m wearing all the personal protective equipment — the gown, the face shield, the N95 masks and the gloves, which we always wear anyway.”
At Baylor, Dillon was a two-time Academic All-Big 12 first-team selection. In 2016 she was an All-Big 12 Indoors selection as a member of the distance medley relay team.
Dillon said her love for being on the frontline and what she is doing
made her briefly consider a transfer to New York or another area that has been hit hard by the coronavirus. Instead, she will continue her studies next month at Emory, whether it be in a classroom or an online situation.
As far as continuing her EMT work when she goes to Atlanta, she said that remains to be seen.
“It’s something I have thought about doing, as long as I have the time,” she said. “AMR is in Atlanta, and I could transfer there if they have a job opening. I was going to see how classes would be like first because I have heard they are rigorous.
“But I was also a full-time athlete while being a student at Baylor, so I think I could handle it.”