A Northumberland County Paramedic was recently celebrated for marking his 40th year on the job.
Sean Johnston said that when he started working as a paramedic, things were much different than they are now.
Coming out of high school, he said he wasn’t sure what he wanted to do as a career. He tried a few different jobs, but eventually he found a paramedics program in Toronto that looked interesting.
He soon after started working for the Cobourg and District Ambulance Service, which would eventually become Northumberland EMS.
Early on in his career, he said they had very minimal equipment and training compared to the present day.
He said he’s incredibly grateful to all the people across the county that he’s come across and said he loves the community.
When asked about his favourite memory, Johnston recalled early on in his career when a patient that he responded to went into cardiac arrest while on route to the hospital. Johnston said he used the defibrillator – which was fairly new for them at the time – to stabilize the patient but he was still unconscious.
The next day Johnston checked in on him at the hospital to find him awake and on the mend. A few weeks later he received a letter from the patient thanking him for saving his life and because of that, he can now celebrate his 50th wedding anniversary with his wife.
Johnston said it’s very rare that he gets to follow up with the people he comes across every day, so that story was one he’ll remember.
Currently Johnston is working on the Community Paramedicine program that sees seniors and other people who would rather live at home than in a care home.
(Written by: Lee McConnell)
