Freshman paramedic helps out those in need on and off campus
Danielle Brown remembers the day a man was rushed into the emergency room where they found out that he had cut his own toe off and tried to super glue it back on.
“I was working in the emergency room as an EMT, so this happened when I first started,” said Danielle Brown, a Humboldt State University freshman. “He was coming to us about two weeks after it happened, he was septic and ended up having a blood clot in his heart.”
Brown is a HSU freshman currently majoring in cellular/molecular biology but she’s also a licensed paramedic in Arcata.
“The toe was dead and we immediately had to cut off the foot to stop the infection from spreading,” Brown said.
Brown has been a paramedic for close to two years now. She started off as an emergency medical technician for six months where she completed the 1,700 hours she needed to become a licensed paramedic. As a paramedic she helped out in various different locations in Los Angeles, responding to all types of medical emergencies.
As a paramedic, Brown is trained beyond the requirements for an EMT.
“I have the ability to use over 150 different medications,” Brown said. “I can do CPR and I’m trained for any ‘in-field maneuvers’, anything you can think of that is needed in the field.”
Brown is always on call for the HSU campus as a paramedic. This means she responds to calls of people in need of medical assistance whenever her phone rings.
“I think I get a call at least once a week from some people next door needing some help,” Brown said.
According to Brown, the job gives her a high adrenaline rush. She’s literally always on her toes and no two days are the same.
“It’s always great to have the ‘go go go,’” Brown said.
In regards to the future with her career, Brown wants to go into emergency medicine. She hopes to progress from a paramedic to an ER doctor. She is doing this all because she not only likes helping people, but it also looks great on medical school applications.
Outside of the great parts of the job there are also some downsides, the main one being the fact that you never know what happens to the people you’ve helped afterwards.
“The EMTs and paramedics all have a saying which is ‘stitch em’ and ‘ditch em’,” Brown said. “You patch them up as quickly as you can and throw them on.”
