In honor of Emergency Medical Services Appreciation Week, The Log sat down with Richea Driskell and Zach Fiorina, two of Okaloosa County EMS responders assigned to the Destin area.
Paramedic/EMT Richea Driskell has been working with emergency medical services for 26 years, but says she did not start out with a medical career in mind.
“When I first started with EMS I had no intentions of going into the medical part of it,” said Driskell. “I was on the desk side, in billing, but about four years into it I was coming home from a friend’s house, and just minutes before a man had rolled his truck.”
Driskell said the man was very cut up, and although not critical, he was badly injured.
“I was trying to calm him and he asked me to wrap him up, but I told him I wasn’t qualified to do that. I made up my mind that night to go into EMT school.”
Paramedic Zach Fiorina previously worked as a landscaper and construction worker, and said that for him, it was family that influenced his career change.
“My brother was a firefighter and paramedic in Daytona, and he got me interested,” said Fiorina. “I went to visit him, and he told me stories, and told me there are good retirement, health insurance and dental.”
Four and a half years later, Fiorina said he truly feels the difference in atmosphere.
“The best thing about it is you never know what you’re gonna get,” he said. “It’s always different with every call, never the same-old same-old.”
When asked what she found most rewarding about the job, Driskell remembered one distinct ambulance call.
“I think one of the most rewarding calls I’ve ever run was a cardiac arrest at a doctor’s office in Fort Walton Beach,” she said. “We get in there, load up the patient, and the wife rides up front with me with rosary beads in her hands.”
Driskell said that on the drive to the hospital she discovered the patient was the father-in-law of a firefighter that she worked closely with at the station.
“At that time we shared a building with the fire department,” she said. “I was on shift with her son-in-law. I knew him; they’re like family to us.”
Driskell and her team were able to save the patient, and she told The Log it was that feeling of connection that really hit home.
“I got to go in there the next day and see him, and talk to him, he walked out of there,” she said.
After the incident, the grateful wife awarded Driskell with the rosary beads that were used that morning — something she faithfully carried with her everyday for years afterwards.
Both paramedics agree that Destin is a unique area with a wide variety of different calls.
“In Fort Walton Beach, we had more citizens with medical calls, and sick calls, but out here we have more beach calls, swimmer-in-distress, and boating accidents,” said Fiorina, comparing Destin to his former assignment on Medic 7 in Fort Walton Beach.
“Destin is one of those cities, a big melting pot of people,” said Driskell. “We run traumas, calls on the docks, accidents on 98. It’s a multitude, a diverse number of calls from locals to tourists, to snowbirds.”
Driskell told The Log that much like the fire department, the EMS crews work 24-hour shifts.
“We do a lot of sacrificing, because of shifts,” she said. “It’s tough. We sacrifice a lot of sleep sometimes. We can be up and running for 24-hours. Sometimes you don’t get to take your boots off.”
Fiorina seconded that as he said, “The simple fact that you miss your bed. A lot of us work overtime; 36-48-hour shifts, and you get a little homesick. You’ll be home one day then you have to come back.”
After counting the hours up, the EMS responders said they spend about a third of their lives on the job.
“You have to have a very understanding family; you have to have a lot of support,” said Driskell. “We always tease each other because hour-wise we spend more time with our work partner than our husbands or wives.”
All that time spent with co-workers, the EMS team shared that they become like a close-knit family.
“There’s a big partnership, you have to count on them,” said Fiorina.
“We’re each other’s support system especially when you have to run the bad calls,” said Driskell. “It’s a family thing, very diverse, a big partner dynamic.”
When not at work Driskell said she enjoys riding her two horses to unwind.
“It’s a good release,” she said. “We see people’s life change in a manner of seconds. It’s one of those things; it’s either highs or lows and you just try to get through it.”
Fiorina said that for his down-time it’s all about the beach.
“Just the beach, surfing, and working out,” he said.
At the end of the day, both paramedics agree that they wouldn’t choose any other job.
“Everyone in the public appreciates you,” said Fiorina.
“Bringing someone back…seeing someone able to walk away; delivering babies, then visiting the mom’s in the hospital the next day there is nothing, nothing that compares to that,” said Driskell.