I am a 26 year old EMT living in Ohio, but have lived in various countries due to my upbringing, I come from a Russian immigrant family and would consider myself first generation American. I spent about half of my life outside of the USA, mainly in South America, and I try to go back and visit a couple of months a year.
January and February I was on one of these trips and came back to the States just a few days before they closed all borders, I remember watching the news coming from Wuhan and seeing the healthcare and civil service workers donning the terrifying TyChem full body suits and going door to door. I remember thinking: "That looks like some sort of post apocalyptic horror movie. Scary scary stuff."
I quarantined for most of March at my grandparents house in Columbus, Ohio and lived in fear and uncertainty like the rest of the world, trying to take care of my family and worrying about all my loved ones around the world. Closing in on April, I received a call from the supervisor of my ambulance company...
FEMA was deploying EMT's from all over the country to the New York City areas in support of their civil service workers, NYC was taking a beating. That same night I was geared up with a fully stocked ambulance in a caravan of about 8, pushing our way to the big apple. Frankly, I was tired of sitting at home waiting for the world to end. 24 hours later I was dragging a suspected Covid positive, mid sixties gentleman having a heart attack down a flight of stairs in the middle of the night in some overpopulated city in New Jersey. Full TyChem suit, full respirator, sweating and heaving and thinking how nauseatingly funny this all is, three weeks ago I never thought this would be my reality, our reality, it seemed so far away.....and here I am now, knee deep in the apocalypse. Those couple months in New York and Jersey changed my life in every way possible, I came from working county EMS and private ambulance companies in 2019, and since then I have been all over the states attempting to hold the front line against COVID. Wether it's helping out with EMS, hospitals, vaccinations, infusion therapies, etc. I've been living out of hotels, sleeping on cots and even ambulances. I've been more exhausted and afraid then I have ever before in my life. I know now there is no going back to how the world was before, I saw the world as we knew it end and don't cry about it any longer....I'm here along with all the brothers and sisters I met on the front lines, doing anything we can to make this new world of ours work for this generation and the generations ahead.
January and February I was on one of these trips and came back to the States just a few days before they closed all borders, I remember watching the news coming from Wuhan and seeing the healthcare and civil service workers donning the terrifying TyChem full body suits and going door to door. I remember thinking: "That looks like some sort of post apocalyptic horror movie. Scary scary stuff."
I quarantined for most of March at my grandparents house in Columbus, Ohio and lived in fear and uncertainty like the rest of the world, trying to take care of my family and worrying about all my loved ones around the world. Closing in on April, I received a call from the supervisor of my ambulance company...
FEMA was deploying EMT's from all over the country to the New York City areas in support of their civil service workers, NYC was taking a beating. That same night I was geared up with a fully stocked ambulance in a caravan of about 8, pushing our way to the big apple. Frankly, I was tired of sitting at home waiting for the world to end. 24 hours later I was dragging a suspected Covid positive, mid sixties gentleman having a heart attack down a flight of stairs in the middle of the night in some overpopulated city in New Jersey. Full TyChem suit, full respirator, sweating and heaving and thinking how nauseatingly funny this all is, three weeks ago I never thought this would be my reality, our reality, it seemed so far away.....and here I am now, knee deep in the apocalypse. Those couple months in New York and Jersey changed my life in every way possible, I came from working county EMS and private ambulance companies in 2019, and since then I have been all over the states attempting to hold the front line against COVID. Wether it's helping out with EMS, hospitals, vaccinations, infusion therapies, etc. I've been living out of hotels, sleeping on cots and even ambulances. I've been more exhausted and afraid then I have ever before in my life. I know now there is no going back to how the world was before, I saw the world as we knew it end and don't cry about it any longer....I'm here along with all the brothers and sisters I met on the front lines, doing anything we can to make this new world of ours work for this generation and the generations ahead.
