Picture this: it’s your first day of classes. You wake up early, so you have time to get ready for a long day. You’re excited to start new classes with new people in a new school year. You quietly leave your room, not waking up your roommate, and make your way to the bathroom. As you begin to brush your teeth, an unmistakably loud and high-pitched siren pierces out from your walkie-talkie, echoing through the silence of your dorm room. You, one of the Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT) on call, are required to drop everything you are doing, and immediately get to the scene of the emergency on Colby’s campus.
This scenario was reality for student EMT Erica O’Donnell `27. “I was brushing my teeth on the first day of classes at 8 a.m., and as I’m mid spitting my toothpaste out, the radio goes off.”
Colby Emergency Response (CER) is a student-run rescue-squad that serves the College 24/7. All school year, four student EMTs prepare themselves to receive calls for 24-hour shifts at a time.
O’Donnell is one of roughly 35 student EMTs on campus. An EMT on duty is distinguishable by their black polos with a branded ‘Colby EMS’ across their shoulders.
Ruby Dwyer `28 is a newly inducted trainee of the Colby CER team.“Trainees are the people who have just gotten onto CER. After enough experience you become a rescuer. Officers are leaders of the force, and they oversee all the calls.” Each shift, two trainees and two rescuers are on call.
Casey Moussette `26 is Colby EMS’ Chief of Service. “I’m pretty much in charge of the whole service. If there is an issue, it is my problem. I am on call 24/7. No matter where I am, I need to be available for anybody to call me,” she explains.
The life of a student EMT is time consuming. Dwyer explained “I was up ’til 3:00 a.m last Saturday.” .
O’Donnell, an EMT and a varsity athlete on the women’s crew team recalls her shifts last spring. She’d often be helping students until 2:30am, only to wake up two hours later at 4:30 am for morning practice.
To become an EMT, students must pass the National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians (NREMT) exam, which usually requires taking a three month course. Colby is unique in that it offers an intensive Jan-Plan for students interested in getting their certification.
Moussette, an English-major-turned-EMS-chief, describes her unconventional admission into Colby EMS. She recalls her mom telling her, “‘You’re at a liberal arts school. Try different things. There are not going to be other EMT courses that are only three weeks long.’”
After she got into the JanPlan, she decided to take advantage of the opportunity to do a ride along with Waterville’s local ambulance company. “At my first call ever at 7 a.m., one week into this EMS course, I responded to a dead person who wasn’t breathing. I remember being in the ambulance, and the paramedic looked back at me and said ‘Have you ever seen a dead person before?’ I said ‘no’ calmly, meanwhile I’m fanning myself, because I was an English major.”
Afterwards, Moussette had to perform CPR on the deceased for nearly 30 minutes, before they were pronounced dead. “After that call I was in shock…I went to class the next day, and when my advisor asked me ‘Are you ok?’ I said ‘Yes.’ I really enjoy helping people. There is something really powerful about being with somebody during the worst moments of their life, and you are able to be the person to comfort them.”
O’Donnell and Dwyer expressed similar sentiments. “The case in EMS is typically that you are responding to the worst day in people’s lives. I really like to get on the scene and reassure people it’s ok. This happens,” O’Donnell says. “I just love being able to help people. I feel like I’m doing something good for the community,” Dwyer adds.
The most common call EMTs respond to is intoxications on the weekends. Moussette notes that “We get a lot of first years who have been introduced to alcohol and don’t know how to handle it.”
O’Donnell’s favorite part of the job is ‘easing people’s worries.’ “It’s great to see them up and about on campus, perfectly healthy afterwards. I can’t talk to them because of HIPPA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act), but you see everyone again, and they all make it out okay.”
Dwyer, a trainee, O’Donnell, a rescuer, and Moussette, an officer, all recommend joining Colby EMS. Dwyer finds Colby EMS to be “a great community.” O’Donnell characterizes Colby EMS as “a fun group of good people who want to help people out at a huge inconvenience to themselves, and their sleep schedules, and their Saturday and Friday nights.”
“If you’re willing to give up that time, it’s a super rewarding experience. It’s an awesome community of people to know,” Moussette said, now on track to go to medical school.“There are not a lot of people in our age group that know what it’s like to deal with certain things…On campus, we are dealing with real emergencies, and catastrophic events…There is a sense of belonging here on CER, because you are with the EMTs in your age group. I made my best friends on the service.”
On a campus where students balance classes, sports, and extracurriculars, Colby’s student EMTs bear the burden of actual emergencies. Having to answer calls, no matter the time of day or night, with readiness, composure and attention is a noble sacrifice. It is undeniable that Colby’s EMS team is made up of a selfless group of people, so thank them next time you see them!
~ Molly Garvey `28
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