The lifesaver at the end of the line
St John Ambulance emergency medical dispatcher Niva Teonea navigates life and death situations every day. Jonathan Guildford reports.
For Niva Teonea, every second counts. As a St John emergency medical dispatcher, the stakes are high. Teonea deals with life and death situations on a daily basis.
‘‘You’re [dealing with] people’s lives. You miss one word, it could change the whole response.’’
Hidden away behind the scenes in Christchurch’s justice precinct, emergency medical dispatchers like Teonea are often unsung heroes and play a crucial role in protecting the public and paramedics at emergency scenes.
The 46-year-old has been in the job for almost three years after a two-year stint doing communications for a security firm in Christchurch.
Being able to save lives attracted her to the job, and she has loved every minute of it, but it did not come without challenges.
The initial transition from protecting buildings to people was a drastic switch, she said. ‘‘The pressure was more serious, and it felt more real. It wasn’t just a building, it was actually someone bleeding or not breathing.’’
Teonea worked two 12-hour days and two 12-hour night shifts each week, answering hundreds of emergency calls from across the country.
She covered all sorts of critical emergencies, from serious crashes to drownings, and had even helped deliver ‘‘a couple’’ of babies.
Teonea’s main job is to establish where the emergency is and then decide what ‘‘limited’’ St John Ambulance resources can be sent to help.
‘‘It’s quite hard when you’re the first person to take a call if a baby’s not breathing or someone’s drowning ... if they’re doing CPR in the middle of nowhere, and you’re waiting for someone to get there in the middle of the night.’’
Teonea said the rate of mental health-related calls, such as suicide attempts, had unfortunately increased during her time on the job.
But there were still many positives – especially when she or another medical dispatcher helped safely deliver a baby over the phone.
The road to becoming a medical dispatcher was not easy, though.
Teonea first completed a diploma in business and accounting to gain crucial office skills before applying for the role.
She then underwent an ‘‘intense’’ eight-stage process to get into the job, and was the only person in her intake to make the cut. Five weeks of ‘‘intense classroom training’’ followed, which included answering real emergency calls alongside a mentor.
‘‘It was horrible, honestly I thought I was going to pass out. I was so nervous . . . I don’t think I slept the night before at all but I got through it.’’
On her days off, Teonea can be found practising her tenor drumming with the Canterbury Caledonian Society’s grade three pipe band.
A friend introduced her to the society 29 years ago, and she found the nunchuck swinging skills she had learnt from martial arts helped with drumming.
She loved spending time with her two children, husband, and Shy their german shepherd-dogue de bordeaux cross.
Despite all the challenges that came with the job, knowing she was helping people in their most desperate time of need made it all worthwhile.