EMT week is coming up soon

EMT week is coming up soon and it’s important to recognize the work that EMT’s do.

Michael Furrh is the EMS Chief for Lavaca and Colorado Counties and he’s been in the field for about 22 years.

“EMT week comes around and sneaks up on us because we stay pretty busy,” Furrh said. “It’s special just to be able to take a week and celebrate the work we do. The work we do is not for the faint of heart. We see and we do things that a lot of people can’t stand to stomach. We also have a very prideful job in the fact that we’re one of the only few professions where a perfectly good stranger invites us into their house, so it’s a huge responsibility. It’s kind of cool to be able to celebrate that and celebrate the hard work our employees put in everyday.”

There’s one thing Furrh said he would like the public to know about the work EMTs put in everyday. “Again, it’s not a normal job,” Furrh said. “Most of the people who are in EMS that I’ve come in contact with cannot stand to have a normal 8-5 p.m. job. We spend a third of our life away from our families at work. So, we essentially have a whole other family when we do come to work. The work that we do may be physically demanding and mentally taxing, but we’re proud to serve.”

Furrh went through what an EMT person does on a day-to-day basis.

“The first thing our guys do when they show up to work is shift change,” Furrh said. “Then they check off all the equipment in their stations to make sure it’s ready to go. This includes getting the truck washed and cleaned. Once they’re done with that, we have a training captain that assigns continuing education to each of the crew. Our shift supervisor or captain will make their rounds around each station and fulfill supply requests, so they have adequate supplies. Once they complete the mandatory things they are assigned, the rest of the day is theirs until their pager goes off or their truck is alerted to a call. Some days are easier than others, some days they don’t sleep for 24 hours.”

Furrh said that the job has gotten so much busier now than it was five years ago. “We believe we have more people moving into our area,” Furrh said. “People are leaving the bigger cities to come to us out here. We don’t realize how many people are moving into our response areas.”

Furrh said there’s one advice he would give to someone thinking about being an EMT

“EMS is a very rewarding career,” Furrh said. “It’s very humbling to have the responsibilities we have and to be able to carry it out. Anybody who is really looking into truly serving the public in a health care setting, this will be for them. You’re not going to get rich from being an EMT or paramedic. But a lot of the feeling you get from within is helping and serving the people. EMS really was only established nationwide in the early 70s. For such a young profession compared to firefighting and nursing, we’ve come a very long way in a short amount of time.”

“It’s all about service and being at the beckon call of the citizen 24/7 and 365. We get calls and we help the people with whatever situation there may be.”

Lavaca County supports the EMS system according to Furrh.

“That’s something that I am very prideful in,” Furrh said. “The investment into this department has been surreal and being able to show the community the fruits of our labor is an important legacy I hope we leave behind.”

Recently, the Lavaca County EMS was status zero.

“Status zero is when there is not an available ambulance for a call for service,” Furrh said. “We’ve been measuring that data for about two years now. It’s starting to become a problem. That status zero may last five minutes or even half an hour. Is it alarming? Yes, it can be. We’re thankful for our neighbors though. Colorado County and Fayette County as well as the Yoakum Fire Department came in and helped us. The other day, Fayette County came in and answered a call for us in Moulton when we were status zero. We do the same thing for Fayette and Colorado County because they are having the same problems. Again, it comes down to the growth in the area. I don’t like building walls and it’s not the way forward in rural EMS. A lot of people from around the state watch our region because of how we work really well with our neighbors.”

Lavaca County EMS is responsible for a thousand square miles in the county. They average anywhere from 2,000 to 2,500 calls for service in the area and it’s slowly increasing. There’s 25 full time employees including Furrh. There’s a station in Moulton, Hallettsville, and Shiner. There were 225 EMT’s people trained in CPR, 36 people trained in Narcan administration and 169 people trained in “Stop the Bleed.” The EMS department works very hard on the clock 24/7.