On the Front Line: Cody Smith's Journey to Becoming a Paramedic

Join us on "Pflugerville on Fire" for an eye-opening conversation with Cody Smith, a dedicated firefighter paramedic who has been bravely serving the Pflugerville community since 2022. Cody opens up about the emotional and intense experiences that first responders face daily, and how these moments solidified his calling in EMS. You'll gain a deeper understanding of the challenges and rewards from his time in the cadet program, detailing the camaraderie, rigorous training, and both the physical and mental demands required to thrive in this field.

Through Cody's vivid storytelling, we'll examine the stark contrasts between two emergency calls that highlight the critical importance of preparation and communication. Hear about a well-coordinated response to a traumatic arrest on Route 130 and compare it to a chaotic and disorganized ambulance call involving a patient with head trauma. Cody's firsthand accounts vividly illustrate the unpredictable nature of EMS work and the essential need for thorough training.

As our discussion unfolds, we tackle the pressing issue of safety funding and how it directly impacts community well-being. Cody shares real-life examples of lifesaving interventions and explains the potential dangers posed by policy changes, such as abolishing a crucial sales tax that funds the fire department. We'll also explore the complex relationship between public safety and political decisions, emphasizing the tangible effects these choices have on the community. Don't miss this insightful episode with Cody Smith, who brings his passion for service and dedication to the forefront of our conversation.

Transcript

Cody Smith 0:11

watching somebody go from walking around, being able to speak words, even though they're not coherent, breathing to you know yeah, not alive anymore is pretty intense so it obviously had some emotional effects on you.

Chris Wolff 0:26

How did that shape your life?

Cody Smith 0:28

I'd really been interested in EMS. I liked the health part of everything. After that I was pretty set on becoming a paramedic because you know, I didn't want anything like that to happen in front of me again, without me being able to say, "hey, we're not doing this, why are we doing this, let's take a step now, if I can right, if I can go back, I'd be like, hey, let's stop and think about this for a second. Why are we doing this?

Cody Smith 0:55

It's easy to just think well, we got a fire and , be like, we're good, there's a fire, fire comes there's. You know, I have a health problem, fire department's gonna come, or?

Chris Wolff 1:03

An ambulance is going to show up.

Cody Smith 1:04

Ambulance is going to show up. Well, that ambulance might take a whole lot longer to show up.

Chris Wolff 1:10

And you never know who's going to open those doors and come out of it.

Cody Smith 1:13

You never know.

Chris Wolff 1:15

Welcome to Pflugerville on Fire. I'm your Chris Wolff. This week we've got a more serious episode and in it we'll talk about a difficult call where one of our community members died as a result of improper EMS care. It can be difficult for first responders to talk about what they see, and for loved ones and listeners it can be equally hard to hear these stories. One thing that helps is to agree on the level of detail before telling the story. When talking to my young kids, I would often talk to them in what I would call the Walt Disney version. Talking to my wife, I would tell her a story on the 5 o'clock news version and, talking to other first responders, I would get into the nitty gritty details and talk about the HBO Max version. On this episode, we're going to be talking about the calls like they would on the 5 o'clock news. As a warning, even this level of detail may be disturbing to some listeners.

Chris Wolff 2:09

In this episode, we're talking to Cody Smith, a firefighter paramedic who joined the department in 2022 as a cadet. The cadet classes are special because outside of the biggest cities, applicants must be certified firefighters and EMTs before they can even apply. This presents a barrier to applicants that don't have either the money or the time to put themselves through an academy. The cadet program is extremely competitive and comprised of many women and people of color. Once they complete the grueling training process, their talents are a great benefit to the community of Pflugerville. I hope you'll enjoy this episode with your very own firefighter and paramedic keeping it real and safe on the streets every day. Cody Smith. Cody Smith, welcome to the show.

Cody Smith 2:55

Hello, hello.

Chris Wolff 2:56

Hello, good to have you on here, sir, it's good to be here. So we're going to let our listeners know. You and I kind of have a special relationship because you were my probie over at Station 5.

Cody Smith 3:06

Yes, I was.

Chris Wolff 3:07

So tell us, when did you join the fire department?

Cody Smith 3:09

That should be January 17th of 2022.

Chris Wolff 3:13

Nice, yep, all right, and so then tell us a little bit about that fire academy. What was that experience like?

Cody Smith 3:20

It was a ton of fun actually. I made a ton of friends. It was a ton of fun actually, I made a ton of friends. It was kind of my first time working as a squad kind of a unit, and that just really kind of put a certain kind of fire under you whenever you get to experience hardship with other people, which is kind of how it is to be a firefighter honestly. And that's fantastic.

Chris Wolff 3:43

Now, you were part of a pretty special class, weren't you?

Cody Smith 3:46

The first civilian class, I believe First cadet class that we had,

Chris Wolff 3:53

and so tell us a little bit about that.

Chris Wolff 3:56

What made that class different from previous ones?

Cody Smith 3:58

Well, I think it was new for the department for sure, so it was a lot of trial and error. But also, I think we might have had a little bit more leeway than there is now. That's good and bad right, but I didn't really have anything to go off of, so for me it was smooth sailing, a little bit worried about you know, can I do this? But there's that drive in the back of me that's like heck, yeah, I can do this,

Chris Wolff 4:23

and so tell me about the fire medical training that you had before going into that academy.

Cody Smith 4:29

Before going into that academy I had zero fire, zero EMS training. I moved pool tables before for eight years, so I had nothing. You know, the closest thing that I ever got to that was seeing stuff on TV, right?

Chris Wolff 4:42

Yeah, yeah. So tell us about like what was that schedule, like what was a typical day in a fire academy.

Cody Smith 4:48

Fire academy. So we started with EMS, so it was nine to five, Monday through Friday, I believe. A lot of schooling in the first three months it's pretty much all EMS doing scenarios, learning about the body, pre-hospital care, what happens to people, how do we fix it. And then the next three months is fire. There's a lot of classroom time there as well, but then we of course go out to the training field and learn skills, camaraderie with your crew, which we kind of started in EMS as well. I'm actually grateful that we did EMS first, because we kind of got to, we got put into squads and we kind of got to build some camaraderie with our squad and we got to the fire ground. It's like, hey, we've worked together, let's do this. I personally think that was a great thing for me.

Chris Wolff 5:37

Did you guys do any workouts as part of that?

Cody Smith 5:39

Oh yeah, oh, yeah, I believe every single day, yeah, every day in the morning is when we would work out for about an hour. And Vanessa, god bless her, she got me right.

Cody Smith 5:51

That's for sure.

Chris Wolff 5:52

So pretty neat. Yeah, people just come in with nothing and leave ready to go.

Cody Smith 5:56

All walks of life.

Chris Wolff 5:57

How many people graduated from that very first class?

Cody Smith 5:59

I think 36, but I might be wrong.

Chris Wolff 6:02

And how many people started

Cody Smith 6:03

50. 50. Yeah, so 36 out of 50 made it.

Chris Wolff 6:10

And if you, had to guess how many people are still in the department right now 28. Yeah, All right.

Cody Smith 6:15

I'd say that's probably close.

Chris Wolff 6:16

The majority of the people who finished are still here.

Chris Wolff 6:18

Yeah, yeah, all right. Well, what made you want to be a firefighter in the first place?

Cody Smith 6:23

I'd always thought firefighters were cool, right, but that's not. You know, I didn't really think about that. I kind of got sucked into my pool table job and I played a lot of video games. There was a particular person that I played video games with for about four to five years. Shout out Dan Stairs Name online Downstairs. He is a Canadian firefighter and he would tell me all about it, tell me about calls, tell me about fires, and I'm like that sounds pretty cool. I think that might be something I want to do, so I start looking into it. Apply at Austin. I move and I live behind a fellow firefighter that you know as well, Mr. Dilworth, and he tells me about Pflugerville's academy that they're going to have.

Chris Wolff 7:04

And is it pretty typical for towns of this size to have their own fire academy? You said you were applying for Austin.

Cody Smith 7:14

Yeah, so theirs is huge and I don't think there's a lot of places that do it. I could be wrong. I'm not sure. I didn't do that much research to be honest.

Chris Wolff 7:25

Yeah, you just got in,

Chris Wolff 7:25

I rolled with it. Yeah, good for you, yeah.

Chris Wolff 7:28

just went for it and it worked out.

Chris Wolff 7:31

Has firefighting been what you expected it to be

Cody Smith 7:34

Everything and more.

Chris Wolff 7:36

How so?

Cody Smith 7:36

Yeah, just some of the things you get to see and do, and looks on people's faces whenever you actually do help them and make a genuine change in their day, their life. It's really cool, yeah. And then the fun of fighting a fire is hard to beat.

Chris Wolff 7:52

So let's go back. So about A little less than a year after starting the Fire Academy and about five months after coming out to a truck, you were part of a pretty bad call. It happened on January 6, 2023, where a for-profit EMS paramedic was responsible for the death of a Pflugerville resident. Yes, had you been on a lot of critical calls before that?

Cody Smith 8:18

Yes, had you been on a lot of critical calls before that. I think that was my second actual real critical patient. I had one CPR before that. It was a traumatic arrest. You were actually on it. It was in the middle and you know what. You were on it. It was in the middle of a highway and you came on scene.

Chris Wolff 8:41

Is this the one off of 130?

Cody Smith 8:42

This is the one off of 130.

Chris Wolff 8:43

Oh, that was a great call

Cody Smith 8:44

and you came on scene and your presence was calm and it just kind of cool water over me and I was like man, because I was, you know, a little bit jitters. I'm like I've never done this before, but I've trained on it and I know what I'm doing, at least I think I do, or, and I know what I'm doing, at least I think I do, or at least I think I did. But yeah, your voice calm, it helped me a lot. So I do.

Cody Smith 9:06

thank you for that for sure,

Chris Wolff 9:07

no problem. So for the listener, I've been on the department or been a firefighter for about nine years. At that point, I've been through paramedic school and run a lot of calls like that. How did that contrast to your experience?

Cody Smith 9:19

Oh I mean, yeah, so that was. I think that was maybe two to three months into my probation. So you know, I had very little at the time and now I think we're a little over two and a half years. So much has changed, but back then having that experience helps so much. It's a vast world that I really just dipped my toes into at the time.

Emergency Response Contrasting Crew Preparation

Chris Wolff 9:47

Those are exciting days. Oh yeah, do you mind? You know we're not trying to name any names and we're not trying to throw people under the bus, but we do want to kind of highlight some of the differences. Can you contrast that? It's so funny you brought up that call. Will you contrast that traumatic arrest on 130 compared to what you saw in the back of that ambulance that night?

Chris Wolff 10:09

Yeah. So that wreck on 130 is, I would say, organized and textbook compared to the storm that was the back of that ambulance, it was just the communication was terrible. The preparedness of the crew, that of the ambulance crew that was there, was just lackluster. I mean they weren't ready for the job that needed to be done, versus how we train and on that middle of the street CPR that we were doing, you wouldn't have thought we were in the middle of the street because it was controlled, everybody had roles, everybody knew their roles. Versus the other call where things are hitting the fan. We're trying to keep my crew while they were there. We're trying to keep things you know best as we can and then and then what happens after? That was much different.

Cody Smith 11:07

Cody, I know all these calls are tough, but do you mind just running over kind of the the rough points of what happened that night?

Chris Wolff 11:15

Yeah, uh. So we got called out to I think it was an altered mentation and we get there and the patient was acting like head trauma had happened. If you've seen a head trauma patient, they can say strange things, act strange. He was acting very strange, kind of moving around, kind of being combative but not violently towards everybody around. I was kind of being combative but not violently towards everybody, um, and he started kind of saying help and kind of barreling through his home and coming from the living room to the kitchen and opening the refrigerator and and kind of looking inside, but with no objective right. So we're trying to corral him and this is just PD's on scene and we're on scene, ambulance crew's not there yet he finally kind of slumps up against the wall and sits down. I'm trying to do best I can with remembering the event, but sits down and that's when we try to maybe take some vitals. People are getting information on the patient from family. He's got some facial trauma. It looks like he definitely hit his face. There's already bruising and there's some blood in his mouth as well and the ambulance crew shows up.

Chris Wolff 12:31

I personally did not see the medic. I only saw the EMT come into the room and then I hear him say that he needed a sedative I think he used the word sedative and then comes back in the room. And then I hear him say that he needed some sort of sedative I think he used the word sedative and then comes back in the room. The EMT was the one who delivered said sedative to the patient after asking about allergies, and pretty much punctuated the sentence with the needle, which was interesting and I didn't really know much at the time. So I was like, okay, I guess this is just you know what happens, but it just felt weird.

Cody Smith 13:04

Was there an ESD, a flugelwald fire department paramedic, on scene at that time?

Chris Wolff 13:09

There was. There was not. No, no, it was a full BLS crew. Three of us were probes, including myself, um, and two one was pretty tenured in the other one, and two one was pretty tenured in the other one. I mean, both were, both are great. I love working with them both, um.

Cody Smith 13:26

But you know three probes and and we're you know running running the call, like, like we think just just probably, just like everyone, they're trying to do the best you can and and he's this.

Chris Wolff 13:34

this guy was breathing normally, I mean maybe a little bit rapid, but he's not having issues moving air, just being a little bit combative, maybe out of his, maybe a little bit rapid, but he's not having issues moving air, just being a little bit combative, maybe out of his mental state a little bit. We're trying to kind of figure out why what's going on.

Cody Smith 13:46

So what would you expect the next thing to be then? In that time, from what experience you had, what was going to happen next?

Chris Wolff 13:53

So after the sedative or before they got there, I don't know Whichever one.

Chris Wolff 14:02

So, uh, I don't whichever, so we'll just say me. I'm thinking, maybe we can just figure out a way to calm him down. It wasn't really working, so possibly some sort of sedative would help in the situation. So I'm like, okay, I get that, you know. Right after that, hopefully he calms down a little bit, we can get him on the stretcher, let's get him in the ambulance, let's get our vitals. If we can, let's go to the hospital. Right, we get him on the ambulance, or, sorry, we get him on the ambulance, let's get our vitals.

Chris Wolff 14:21

If we can, let's go to the hospital. Right, we get them on the ambulance, or, sorry, we get them on the stretcher, that's right outside the door, and I'm like, okay, transfer of care like normal, they've probably got it. We start to put our bags up and our driver at the time was like, hey, let's see if they need anything in the back of the ambulance, which is very, very common on every ems call your engine. Crew is going to help. So change gloves or no. We put the bags up and then we go to the ambulance and they ask for a rider and of course, me, new gung-ho. I'm like, yeah, let's do it, I'll go. So cool, I get into the back of the ambulance.

Chris Wolff 15:03

So they had given I'm almost positive inside they gave a drug called midazolam, which is a benzodiazepine, and it can. It's, it's, it's a mild sedative. They use it to stop seizures. I guess we, because now I can do that, but it's very versatile. So they give that. And then, as I'm going to get into the ambulance, we're, we're coming around and I think I see them give. They gave a drug intranasally. I'm not sure if that was the next drug that they chose or if it was the midazolam. But they gave another drug that I know was another sedative.

Chris Wolff 15:34

And I'm like, okay, I ask if they have some soft restraints. And the medic says, yeah, they're in that bag, right there, driver and I, our crew, looking through the bag, no soft restraints at all. And they're like, oh yeah, we used them on a call earlier. So I'm like, okay, cool, so you didn't prepare and restock your stuff. Maybe they didn't have them, but that's stuff you got to do Every single time after you get back from a call. You restock your ambulance. They asked for a BVM so that we can help breathe for the guy. I grabbed the BVM that we find in there. The medic inserts what's called a King Airway. It's a tube device, it's a supraglottic device that you put to help breathe for somebody. Did he accept that he?

Chris Wolff 16:19

did so it was compliant no gag reflex.

Cody Smith 16:22

No gag reflex, all right, the sedatives that they chose to use was enough to worked.

Chris Wolff 16:26

Enough, right so I connect the bag to to the king airway chest rise and getting good compliance. There was an iv established and they gave another drug. I believe they gaveomidate at some point. Don't quote me on that, even though this is recorded.

Cody Smith 16:46

I'm sure that's written somewhere. It's going to be written somewhere. I've not ever seen the report.

Chris Wolff 16:50

This is all off the top of my head, and you've never seen the report too, right? No, I have not.

Cody Smith 16:53

Did anyone officially come and ask you questions?

Chris Wolff 16:57

No, I have not been questioned by any official.

Cody Smith 17:00

Okay, you questions? No, I have not been questioned.

Chris Wolff 17:01

No one ever did any official okay, no, um, no, so it's kind of all been hearsay.

Cody Smith 17:04

This is all just what I saw, yeah so we know about as much as a listener exactly exactly, but I know sedatives are on board.

Chris Wolff 17:12

He accepts the airway.

Cody Smith 17:13

I'm like cool let's let's go to the hospital, yeah right.

Chris Wolff 17:17

so they asked for the rider. I'm'm back there, well, all three of us. So there's the medic, there's the EMT, and then there's me. So I'm like, all right, emt's going to get up front, we're going to go to the hospital. Well, that doesn't quite happen. We're still in there messing around. I think the EMT's maybe trying to get vitals or something. At this time I don't have the view that I do now of scenes where I can look at the whole scene together and kind of really take in what's going on.

Cody Smith 17:43

So I'm really focusing on oh yeah, I was tunnel vision big time. Yeah, absolutely.

Chris Wolff 17:47

So I'm focusing on just making sure that I'm giving the right breaths at the right time.

Cody Smith 17:51

Which is the right thing to do. You're on airway.

Chris Wolff 17:53

That's your job, yeah, so that broader mindset comes later. Anyway, sedatives start to wear off. My crew leaves they clear them and I'm like all right, we're about to leave.

Cody Smith 18:05

What do you think their expectation was, as they're driving away?

Chris Wolff 18:09

They'll be at the hospital. We'll go have safety. We'll come bring our firefighter that we dropped off. They're going to hopefully hear about what happened when we dropped him off at the hospital and he's doing all right. So that was my thought as well. I'm like, okay, cool, this is kind of a little bit of a high speed call. Let's go to the hospital. The patient starts to come to and when he's coming to, he starts to kind of aspirate a little bit, a little bit of it's probably not liking that.

Cody Smith 18:38

Oh, he wasn't liking that, airway, that's, you know.

Chris Wolff 18:40

Shoved down sitting right on his epiglottis there and he starts to kind of try and pull it out. Well, the EMT kudos to him. He was really quick. So that king airway has a balloon on it that you fill up with a large syringe that keeps it in place and keeps, uh, the air going into the trachea, not the esophagus quickly deflates that balloon and pulls out the adjunct and the patient is still kind of aspirating. He's not quite choking on it.

Chris Wolff 19:07

But I asked for suction in the ambulance. I don't know this ambulance, I don't work in it every day. So I asked for suction. Medic's like, okay, cool, here's the suction tubing with the Yankower and he toggles the suction switch and nothing is happening. So their suction unit isn't working. And then shortly after that the patient codes. So he goes into cardiac arrest and I hop on. I get off of airway and hop on chest. The medic takes the, the medic takes the airway, the EMT uses my radio that I have on me to radio in the cardiac arrest in progress and as I'm doing chest compressions I hear my crew that I was, that I'm on, get radioed back out to the scene how long would you say you guys were in the back of that ambulance for?

Chris Wolff 19:54

uh, at this point, I'd say from getting. From getting in, I was probably in there 10, 15 minutes. I think the total scene time might've been about 45 minutes. So we were there for a long time. Yeah, so from from door to ambulance to finally leaving to the hospital, I'm going to guess about 45 minutes it was a long time.

Cody Smith 20:18

So did y' all work him in, I'd like to actually know the exact time on that?

Chris Wolff 20:22

That would be interesting. So we start working him in the ambulance. We get ROSC, so we get return of spontaneous circulation Without shock. He comes back. We get pulses. I'm like cool.

Cody Smith 20:36

What's happening with the airway at this point?

Chris Wolff 20:38

So at this time the medic is on airway. He did not. He did not try to get another adjunct in. There wasn't an opa, there wasn't an npa. He didn't try the king that was compliant before is he on a bag?

Cody Smith 20:53

he is bagging, okay so he's bagging.

Chris Wolff 20:55

He's got a bvm, but with no adjunct. At the time I I'm doing compressions, I'm not looking at the monitor to see what are his oxygen saturation, you know, I don't. I'm not keen to look at all that stuff yet. So I hop back on airway and I start bagging and then, without notice at all, I'm paying attention to holding my mask seal and then I just see, you know, scalpel come in. Not even a sharps out, not a hey, we're going to crike. Not no talk of it, not even like maybe we should intubate, or let's try the king again. Or how about an eye gel? I don't know if they have eye gels, but or an OPA or an MPA. And yeah, I just see the scalpel come in front of my face and cut down the man's throat. But I'm like, oh my gosh what's going on?

Chris Wolff 21:54

This must be necessary, but it does not feel right. And right about that time the driver that was on my crew opens the door and I'm like, hey, we need to switch, I need to go grab suction from our unit, from the truck, because they don't have it.

Cody Smith 22:11

So I run and do that. How many paramedics are in the back of that ambulance right now?

High-Stress Medical Emergency Response Story

Chris Wolff 22:14

Just one, just two, just the one Still on scene. Yeah, so I run to the engine. I actually run to the engine, throw on my green suit real quick, grab the suction and come back. There's no way it took me longer than 45 seconds. I tried to be extremely quick, maybe not even 30. And I'll give myself props it was fast. But anyway, so I get back in. He's got. He does get the tube in, um, so I didn't see the inserting of the tube. I saw the cut and then I saw the puncture through the trachea, uh, and then I left, came right back. Tube is in. I heard later that there was issues getting the tube in. Yeah, issues getting the tube in. Yeah, issues getting that tube in and to be clear in case someone wants to Google it.

Cody Smith 23:06

He went for a crike.

Chris Wolff 23:07

He went for a crike, a cricothyroidomy. So when you're going to crike somebody, there are indications that must happen. So can't ventilate, can't oxygenate.

Cody Smith 23:18

Right.

Chris Wolff 23:19

You knowive facial trauma, jaws shut, you don't have any paralytics. There's no possible way that you can get an adjunct in their mouth. You can't breathe for them. It's a decision that, yes, you need to make it quickly, but it is very, very circumstantial.

Cody Smith 23:38

We're not trying to Monday morning quarterback, but this is pretty outside of the ballpark. Of what?

Chris Wolff 23:42

Very much outside of the ballpark. I think we could have gone to the hospital. Looking back yeah, quarterbacking right, I'm pretty sure we could have gone to the hospital with non-rebreather and nasal cannula without all the other extra stuff that happened on this call. That might be. You know, maybe that's a long shot, man, that's tough dude.

Cody Smith 24:04

So did you ride it in? Yeah, so.

Chris Wolff 24:07

I got back in and the other two probies that were on my crew were now in the ambulance, one bagging, the other one is holding him. Well, okay, so we take off to the hospital, us three in the back plus the medics, so there's four of us One's bagging, the other one's holding, Holding the person that's bagging on airway and holding onto a bar, because you know we're moving down the road and there's really no way to be in a seatbelt in this situation, in a seatbelt in this situation.

Cody Smith 24:38

And that's another part where, as a lieutenant, I would take one of my best, most senior dudes and have him drive that, or dudettes and have them drive that ambulance in there.

Chris Wolff 24:48

Yeah, that's a very dangerous place to be, it is very dangerous, and yeah, so my mind's going a thousand miles an hour, but only trying to stay at one task at hand, right, I do know that after the tube was in the throat, in the throat, in the trachea, for the, it was not secured until we got to the hospital. So this thing is, you know, my, my fellow firefighter, I'm not okay I'm not bagging, I'm.

Chris Wolff 25:14

What am I doing at this time? Well, he codes again, so I I end up starting to do compressions hanging from the ceiling. And if you can imagine if the listeners have ever seen CPR done before, it's not a you know, it's kind of a violent process.

Cody Smith 25:32

It's for sure a violent process.

Chris Wolff 25:35

It can be controlled best you can, but it's not easy on the body and when you're doing that, if you can imagine having a tube sticking out of your neck, it's not going to stay. Still so that thing, and you're moving down the road and you got one person trying to hold it.

Chris Wolff 25:48

Um, so is the paramedic then on the tube like he's, yeah, he's around the tube and he keeps so before he goes, he keeps asking me for four by four, sterile four by fours and all the sterile dressing that they have and he's asking you that, he's asking me that because the patient is hemorrhaging out of his neck, so he somewhere, uh, either an artery or or a large vessel was nicked and a lot of blood. And remember, our suction canister is 300 milliliters. That thing's been full.

Cody Smith 26:19

We don't have suction, right, they don't have suction so we had our not that you had your section, but it's the portable one that we carry in the bag that we carry in our bags. It's not one that's designed to be used exactly, exactly so he's asking me for four by fours.

Chris Wolff 26:34

I'm getting them everything as quickly as I can right and he's just kind of blotting it up. There's not really an attempt to really control the bleeding. I mean, you can't. The neck is a really really difficult place to control bleeding, especially when you got, you know, a three inch cut. Patient ends up coding and we end up doing hang from the ceiling, cpr all the way to the hospital what so?

Cody Smith 26:57

what happens? You guys get to the er, those doors open and can you describe?

Chris Wolff 27:01

doors open. Um, they knew, oh man. So I've given a shoddy radio report before, so I can't say much, but goodness gracious.

Cody Smith 27:12

What did it sound like?

Chris Wolff 27:14

So at one point I don't remember all of it, but it was very frantic, which I get it's a high stress scene, especially what is going on. But I do remember the nurses asking a question. I don't remember what the question was, but the medic comes back over in the radio and he's like I don't know, we got a lot of stuff going on right now. We'll be there in like 10 minutes and I'm like okay, all right.

Cody Smith 27:41

but so hospital probably, probably, doesn't know what they're. Yes, I mean, they know it's not going to be.

Chris Wolff 27:46

You know I don't know, I don't think he, I don't think he said that. He criked over the radio, so it's probably a shock. Whenever the nurse opened, the nurse actually opened the back doors of the ambulance. They were ready. Yeah, they knew. I mean, they knew we had cpr in progress on the way. So crash team's ready. You know, chest compressions out of the, out of the ambulance switch with the nurse. She was a poor girl, she was not very tall, so I quickly switched back.

Cody Smith 28:13

That's hard. Yeah, that's hard.

Chris Wolff 28:14

If you've ever done CPR on a stretcher, it's very difficult to do high-quality CPR. So, yeah, we switched all the way into the trauma bay there. Do you remember what the ER doc said?

Cody Smith 28:25

All the way into the trauma. Do you remember what the ER doc said?

Chris Wolff 28:29

I don't quite remember what the ER doc said, but the pass on that was given from the medic. It just seemed like he was just running a textbook call and everything was normal. It was just odd and everything was normal. It was just odd, which maybe that's good to have that sort of way of speaking, but I didn't know much at the time. But it was a shoddy pass on. It was. There wasn't a lot told and honestly they probably didn't care. They saw the patient and the condition that he was in and they knew what they needed to do.

Cody Smith 29:04

Yeah, they did. Yeah, and the back of that ambulance looked you, you know, with no stretcher in it. There was a ton of blood on the floor of that stretcher. It's time, yeah, let me. Let me ask you then. Uh, so what was so? Safety came and there were three of y'all they had to pick up. How was that ride home in the safety truck?

Chris Wolff 29:34

Not, as you know, after calls sometimes there's, you know, joshing around or whatever, but this one was more of a okay, what happens now? Because everything that happened we know wasn't correct and we know that when we're getting back it was more of a okay, what happens now? Because everything that happened we know wasn't correct and we know that when we're getting back it was more of a okay, when we get back, we're going to have to really sit down and talk about what just happened. I'd say it was quieter than most as far as the talk that was happening. It was more of a everyone collect your thoughts and just kind of you got to talk about it, but it was you do of.

Cody Smith 30:09

You got to talk about it, but it was, it was you do you got to talk about it yeah, it was interesting.

Chris Wolff 30:13

So I haven't had one like that since I've had some crazy ones.

Cody Smith 30:16

But any short-term or long-term emotional effects from there.

Chris Wolff 30:21

Yeah, talking about it sometimes is pretty crazy. I think I. I think I do well with you know handling stuff like that. Luckily, I wasn't sure if I would. When I got this job, I was like I don't know if I'm able to see crazy. I think I'd, I think I'd do well with you know handling stuff like that. Luckily, I wasn't sure if I would. When I got this job, I was like I don't know if I'm able to see stuff like that, but yeah, it's, it's pretty crazy. And now I don't.

Cody Smith 30:36

I don't think people realize just how much stuff we see or what happens in their own community. So last shift, what tell me about that? Call you ran last shift.

Chris Wolff 30:46

So I mean, yeah, just last shift we ran a it was rescue conditions. Luckily we were right down the road. And we show up and well, the call text finally come through and it was patient was working on his vehicle and the vehicle had fallen on the patient. Right before we arrive it stated that bystanders had lifted the vehicle somehow and I'm guessing, okay, okay, maybe a jack or something. And we show up and there is a patient absolutely underneath the vehicle, kind of laying down perpendicular to the car under the rotor pretty, pretty crushed, oh, under the rotor yeah, and the rotor had, you know, done some.

Chris Wolff 31:22

It had done some damage to his, his chest cavity. It was caved in quite a bit. Rigor had already set in. It was bad. It looked pretty bad. So like kind of that Compared to the cry call that cry call is 50 times crazier, more intense than that call yeah, man. And just like watching somebody go from walking around, being able to speak words, even though they're not coherent, breathing to you know yeah, not alive anymore is pretty intense so it obviously had some emotional effects on you.

Cody Smith 32:00

How did that shape your life? What decisions have you made since then and yeah.

Chris Wolff 32:05

So, like I said before, I'd kind of I'd really been interested in ems. I liked the health part of everything. Um, after that I was pretty sad on becoming a paramedic because you know, I didn't want anything like that to happen in front of me again, without me being able to say, hey, we're not doing this, why are we doing this, let's take a step now. If I can right, if I can go back, I'd be like, hey, let's stop and think about not doing this. Why are we doing this? Let's take a step now. If I can write, if I can go back, I'd be like, hey, let's stop and think about this for a second. Why are we doing this? But so that was a. I knew I kind of wanted to be a paramedic, but that was a, a very. It cemented the idea in my head and luckily I got that chance.

Cody Smith 32:43

So that's amazing. Tell us about, so tell us about that.

Chris Wolff 32:54

We, the fire department, offers a paramedic school. It's pretty competitive to get into it and you were able to do it and complete the training I was able to get in. Um, it's a grueling nine months. It's just so much information. Uh, I would do it again. I would definitely do it again. I just got cleared actually, so that's pretty cool. It took me about about I think, four to five months or so, which is I'm grateful for that, because the clearing process, the clearing process is very tough what do?

Cody Smith 33:17

what do you know about clearing at a at your average for-profit ems?

Chris Wolff 33:22

I have heard that you can clear at the. I've heard that you can clear at the private ambulance company that was on that call in less than a month.

Cody Smith 33:34

In less than a month.

Chris Wolff 33:35

Yeah, and it took me four to five and during that we've got scenario testing, skill testing, you're running every single call and you've got a paramedic, eft, a very good paramedic that the department trusts to train people who go through what I went through and I'm grateful for that. It is a, it is a pain and I was very ready to be done with it and I'm happy that I am.

Cody Smith 34:02

How do you, how do you feel skill wise? Where's your confidence at Skills I?

Chris Wolff 34:06

feel pretty dang good.

Cody Smith 34:08

Yeah.

Chris Wolff 34:09

Yeah, skill-wise. Where's your confidence at skills?

Cody Smith 34:11

I feel pretty dang good yeah, yeah, I I actually really enjoy. Obviously I don't want.

Chris Wolff 34:13

I think if you and I ran a car right now you'd be the better medic, for sure, no for sure you got that fresh knowledge the fresh knowledge is there, but but you've got years more of seeing what I haven't seen.

Cody Smith 34:24

So i't know. But so all of that stuff, how does that impact the community? Like if the listener sitting at home right now their tax dollars put you through a nine month classroom session and then five more months of riding with a trained paramedic. How does that affect them? How does that benefit them?

Safety Funding and Future Goals

Chris Wolff 34:45

Well, it benefits them because if they're in the district that I'm in, or that anybody that's trained by our department is in, they can know that it's not easy to clear and become a medic here, and it's. The standards are very high. So the standard of care that you're going to get, I believe, is very good. You you have, you have a good chance of coming out better, hopefully, than if you know you were on your own or if you were taken care of by a private ambulance company. And that's not to say that there aren't great medics in some private companies and I can name.

Cody Smith 35:21

you know I could hold my fingers and name people that are working in the city right now that I would love if they'd come over to our department and work. But, unfortunately, but they're not like that. That's not, that's not the norm, that's not your average person.

Chris Wolff 35:34

Yeah, and I can't you know, I wouldn't. I would never say that everybody that works for a private ambulance company is shoddy or whatever. So there are definitely some great medics out there, I'm sure.

Cody Smith 35:43

And I'm so happy when I see them get out of the ambulance.

Chris Wolff 35:45

Yeah, you're like oh yes, Okay, good, we're going to be all right, yeah.

Cody Smith 35:52

So you told me about that call that happened to you yesterday and you were at Station 3 on an engine, so you're a paramedic on an engine.

Chris Wolff 36:00

So I get shuffled around. I've been on a box frequently recently just because of the clearing process.

Cody Smith 36:07

Do you know that there's a small minority of people in the city that say, hey, that 2014 sales tax that you guys get was for ALS, and most of them think that that means transport service. It doesn't. It means paramedics like you. Are they still getting that benefit? Did you run any calls into the city yesterday?

Chris Wolff 36:31

This call was in the city, but unfortunately I wasn't able to do anything because it was an obvious death. Had it not been would you have been able to make an impact or had it been critical, a critical call yes.

Chris Wolff 36:47

I could have. That ambulance company would have shown up and then they would have taken transfer of care. But I believe before they get there I can make a difference. Now the only problem with that is if I'm going in the city on an engine, I don't have some of the narcotics and the drugs and the capabilities as if I were on one of our ambulances.

Cody Smith 37:09

Or one of our ALS? Yeah, one of our.

Chris Wolff 37:11

ALS ambulances right, I don't, I don't.

Cody Smith 37:14

Or ALS ones.

Chris Wolff 37:15

I can't stop a seizure. I can't stop somebody seizing, you know, in the city, because I won't. We can't carry that stuff.

Cody Smith 37:23

All right. Well, what happens when that for-profit ambulance shows up?

Chris Wolff 37:39

What can you do then?

Cody Smith 37:39

Well, I can give them the best pass on that I can, and I can do my best to help them, but I'm not sure if I'm even really allowed to. Well, if you were in a position that you could help someone, oh, I'd do it, because I do it all the time and I don't even care if I have care if I have trouble.

Chris Wolff 37:49

I'll get in trouble for somebody's health. I will absolutely make the right decision.

Cody Smith 37:52

That's one of our citizens there. We have the training, we're doing it.

Chris Wolff 37:59

They show up and I know exactly what this patient needs. I'm calling for it and I'm telling them why, and they're going to know every reason why this patient needs this intervention right now.

Cody Smith 38:08

And I'll tell you to be 100% honest with you, if that for-profit ambulance shows up and it's not one of those people that I know I'm just running that call.

Chris Wolff 38:18

Yeah, well, we had. Actually, I had another call as a probie, one of our ex-employees that used to work here, great guy, we had run a cardiac arrest at his home and it was in the city and we ran it and it went fantastic. He's alive today. He's walking around, but we got Ross right as he was on that call Really. I was on airway.

Cody Smith 38:46

Wow, yeah, yeah, I can. I don't want to do any hippa stuff on the show, but oh yeah, he helps us out a ton with our community cpr program. Oh yeah, and and in fact I don't think he's missed a program we do a free community cpr class every month. He was the inspiration for it yes, because his wife saved his life because she knew cpr. And then you guys and coleman showed up with it was a badass paramedic yeah, and she, that's right, that's right and yeah, so he was the inspiration for that community cpr program.

Cody Smith 39:16

I don't know if you know that. Yeah, I did not know that.

Chris Wolff 39:18

So, wow, you were on that call big kudos to her because immediate recognition of the need for cpr. She did it. We show up, we take over. I believe we delivered two shocks. He was back. Um private ambulance company shows up and they wanted to stay on scene for a lot longer to stabilize and us knowing who it is doesn't matter if we know who it is. This patient is now a ross patient. You need to go to the hospital like we're packaging up and we're going. If we weren't there that day, making the push to get to the hospital quicker, who knows how long it would have taken.

Cody Smith 40:03

So if the citizens of the Fleurville community vote yes and abolish the sales tax revenue that provides 40 percent of the income for the fire department, do we still have a paramedic program?

Chris Wolff 40:18

I don't know, probably not. That puts a lot of people at risk of losing their jobs and that puts the civilians at risk of you know know, the good help that they could have if they're having an issue well, I can tell you there'll be no paramedic program.

Cody Smith 40:33

Uh, there's another program. That's very important that they won't be here either, the whole reason you're in this department that's right.

Chris Wolff 40:39

The cadet program cadet program.

Cody Smith 40:41

That'll be gone. So that cadet program is pretty special because dudes like you like when I got hired on this department you had to know you want to be a firefighter. You had to put up 5 000 of your own bucks, yeah, put yourself through emt school and fire school and then yeah, so we got some pretty great people in your class in the next two or three classes that have come after that, yeah so that, that's gone yeah now let me ask you I I know you, not everyone is as well versed on this Do you still have a job if that gets cut?

Cody Smith 41:11

Do you know? Possibly not.

Chris Wolff 41:13

I don't know, I don't know, I don't think anyone knows You're talking about if we lose our funding.

Cody Smith 41:21

Yeah, no, you could know.

Chris Wolff 41:23

What do you mean?

Cody Smith 41:24

Well, the department's cutting 132 firefighters.

Chris Wolff 41:27

Yeah.

Cody Smith 41:29

So are you more senior than that or less senior than that?

Chris Wolff 41:33

I mean, I'm a firefighter medic, but that doesn't necessarily no, no, no, higher date. Oh, oh, no, I'm 100%.

Cody Smith 41:40

You gone.

Chris Wolff 41:41

Probably.

Cody Smith 41:43

You can look it up, yeah.

Chris Wolff 41:45

Yeah, I don't really know how it's going to go, but seniority, I believe, plays a part in that and I think we've only from my class if we take all the cadets, it's probably about 130 people.

Cody Smith 41:58

You'll be right there on the edge. I'll be right there. No, I'll be pulling for you, buddy. I'm just kidding. We're not going to let that happen, man. We're going to educate the community and make sure that that doesn't happen.

Chris Wolff 42:09

It's definitely scary and I have I have friends and family that live in the city of Pflugerville and, yeah, it's, it's not good stuff. No, no.

Cody Smith 42:20

Yeah Well. So what would you do then if? If the fire department got defunded, but you're out there, you're pretty marketable with that paramedic cert. Well, what do you think you would do?

Chris Wolff 42:31

Maybe I'll go work for Allegiance and help us out. I'd have to apply to a bunch of places.

Cody Smith 42:39

They'd be lucky to have you over there. I appreciate it. I appreciate it, yeah.

Chris Wolff 42:44

But you know I wouldn't want to do that. Yeah, I'd have to figure it out. I really don't want to do that.

Cody Smith 42:51

All right. So let's say that you know voters say no, that we're not going to defund the fire department, we're not going to abolish the sales tax revenue that they get. What are you? What's your five-year plan? What are you looking forward to as a new paramedic paragon out there on the street?

Chris Wolff 43:10

I mean just doing the best I can, you know, hopefully saving people, making sure that they come out on top of any of their hardships that they might have. I'll, you know, I'll do all the other stuff. Open up some task books, get some more certifications under my belt, but training, make sure that I'm better than I was the shift before.

Cody Smith 43:35

Yeah Well, cody man, thank you so much for telling that story. I know that's not easy to do. There's people out there that talk about the fire department and how much money it should have, and how much money we should spend to make a paramedic or to recruit a really great person into the department. Yeah, but if you've never seen those things, let alone heard about them, it's hard to really know what you're talking about.

Chris Wolff 44:01

Yeah, you don't know and there's a lot behind those closed doors and it's easy to. It's easy to just think well, we got a fire department, we're good, there's a fire, fire comes, I have a health problem, fire department's going to come.

Cody Smith 44:17

An ambulance is going to show up.

Chris Wolff 44:18

Ambulance is going to show up. Well, that ambulance might take a whole lot longer to show up.

Cody Smith 44:24

And you never know who's going to open those doors and come out of it. You never know, well, man, and you never know who's who's going to open those doors and come out of it. Well, man, thank you so much. I sure appreciate, appreciate, appreciate you as a person, appreciate you coming on the show, appreciate you super proud, super proud of the firefighter, paramedic that you've become thank you thank you I look forward to the more more that will be coming back out on the trucks.

Chris Wolff 44:44

We got a program going right now.

Cody Smith 44:45

Yeah there's a paramedic school in session right now. We got people we're sending a french. It's a good program. Yeah, we've all we've already. I think we've offered the next cadet program to 50 yeah, 50 something people coming in the door good luck to all of them I will be helping out with the ems portion of that good and the fire and and the thing is as quickly as the city's grown, we're going to need them.

Civic Leaders' Impact on Public Safety

Chris Wolff 45:08

Yes, we will, we definitely will.

Cody Smith 45:10

Well, thank you sir.

Chris Wolff 45:11

Yes, sir, Appreciate you Give me one of these Handshake Handshake, all right.

Cody Smith 45:17

I hope you enjoyed listening to this episode. Stories like that can be difficult to hear and they highlight the real impact that politicians and civic leaders have on our public safety impact that politicians and civic leaders have on our public safety. At the time of this recording, I've not yet been able to get another opposing voice to talk about why they believe that the fire department's sales tax revenue should be abolished. I'll continue to reach out and I hope you continue to listen Next week on Pflugerville on Fire.