Paramedic of the Year

By Matt Flumerfelt

June 19, 2009 11:28 pm

— VALDOSTA — Nick Tomlinson said he was humbled and honored when he found out his peers had voted to give him the Paramedic of the Year Award. He said he loves his job so much he looks forward to his work days, and doesn’t mind getting up at 5 or 5:30 a.m. or answering phone calls at 2 in the morning.
Tomlinson said he received his emergency medical technician training at Okefenokee Technical College in Waycross and completed his paramedic training at Valdosta Technical College in 2000. His father is originally from Wichita, Kan., and retired from the Air Force, and his mother is a retired civil servant who hails from Cheshire in Great Britain.
His first call was an accident in Lakeland in which a distribution truck collided with a Ford Explorer, resulting in four fatalities. He said it was a make-or-break call for him. His co-workers figured that if he wasn’t unnerved by that accident, then he had what it took to do the job.
He said one of his funniest calls was to assist a woman who had fallen. The dispatcher warned him to beware of her dog. He said he was picturing a huge, full-blooded rottweiler that was going to eat him alive. When he got there, the dog turned out to be a chihuahua. The chihuahua was very protective of its fallen owner and did in fact go after his ankles as he tried to assist the woman.
Another call that stands out in his mind was an accident involving a young woman. She was broadsided when she mistakenly pulled out in front of an 18-wheeler. When he arrived at the scene, she was unresponsive and had severe injuries and
trauma.
Even though she was critically injured in the accident, Tomlinson said she recovered and went on to attend college.
Tomlinson is married and has two kids, 14-year-old Dalton and 21-month-old Sadie. His wife, Lori, is a charge nurse at South Georgia Medical Center. He said EMTs all have that little bit of quirkiness that helps them cope with the emotional ups and downs of the job. He said his wife finds it a bit odd, for example, that he can be talking about something like brain matter while sitting down to a spaghetti dinner.
“In this job, your first call of the day might be a death, where you have to explain to a family member what happened, and the next call might be a birth, so you’re going from one massive emotion to another,” he said.
Even though he and his colleagues can handle a lot, he said there are still things that bother them. They also have their share of calls involving “intoxicated persons having fun with aliens.” His job has brought him in contact with all sorts of people, including superstars, NASCAR drivers, and a host of other interesting folks. Tomlinson said he always tries to leave behind some sort of positive or professional impression.
Tomlinson also works as an adjunct instructor for the Emergency Medical Services program at Valdosta Technical Institute. He said he hopes he can impart a little bit of his knowledge and enjoyment of the job to those he teaches.

John Ward Henderson III, Rookie of the Year

John Ward Henderson III was shocked and surprised when he found out he was voted Rookie Paramedic of the Year by his colleagues, he said, not because they picked him, but because he didn’t think he was still a rookie. He since learned that a rookie is considered anyone who is still within 15 months of his latest job description. He thought his two years and seven months on the job would have disqualified him for Rookie of the Year. He is, of course, pleased that his peers think highly enough of him to give him the award, he said.
He received his emergency medical technician training at Moultrie Technical College and did his paramedic training at Val-Tech. His parents live in Tifton, and he still commutes from Tifton. His father is “a third-generation accountant,” and his mother works for a hardware distribution company. He decided not to be a fourth-generation accountant because he didn’t want to deal with all the math.
Asked to recall some of his more interesting calls, he said they all run together after a while, but one or two stand out in his mind. He has worked two wrecks involving log trucks since he started, both of which resulted in fatalities. In one such call, he said a motorgrader pulled out in front of a log truck and the truck caught fire, resulting in the death of the truck driver.
His said his most interesting call had nothing to do with the EMS side of the job.
“We were called to back up a fire at Care Environmental. They dispose of different types of waste and one of the things they do is aerosol cans. The sway truck full of aerosol cans caught fire and we just sat back and watched the cans blow a hundred feet in the air.”
He said they get a lot of off-the-wall calls. It’s not unusual, for example, for people who are taking a bath to play with the water spigot in the tub with their foot, he said. They occasionally get calls to help someone who got their big toe stuck in the spigot.
One time, Henderson said, an older gentleman had taken a shower and afterward sat down in a metal-frame garden chair with the plastic strips. When he tried to get up, the chair got up with him and wouldn’t let go. He spent 14 hours in that chair. Another call involved a 60-year-old gentleman who broke some ribs when he was thrown from a horse he was trying to break. None of the calls are “textbook calls,” he said.
Some of the key attributes included in the nominations for these award recipients are attitude, teamwork, dedication, loyalty, ethics, customer service, patient-care skills, interpersonal relations, dependability, personal conduct, initiative, integrity, diversity, communications, efficiency and effectiveness.

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