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| Answering the Call for EMT Volunteers November 2011
Dennis Popiela says he's witnessed many dire events in his volunteer work as an emergency medical technician (EMT), but the call he remembers most clearly involved a stabbing. "The patient was a young woman who was attacked on the beach. A guy came up to her and slashed her neck," says Popiela, a MITRE lead multi-discipline systems engineer. "She managed to make her way to a nearby house, where they called the ambulance. We had to act fast to stop the bleeding." Working against time, Popiela and his EMT colleagues stabilized the woman and transported her to a hospital. Meanwhile local police were able to catch the alleged assailant. He cites the situation as one of the most rewarding of his nearly two-year volunteer EMT career with the City of Virginia Beach Department of Emergency Medical Services. Popiela, who works at MITRE's Norfolk Naval Base site, not only rides an ambulance as an EMT, but also serves as one of the department's lieutenants. In this capacity he is responsible for purchasing and logistics-related tasks including setting up and troubleshooting new ambulance equipment. All told, he spends about 120 hours per month volunteering for the department. He is one of 1,300 volunteer staffers of the City of Virginia Beach Department of Emergency Medical Services, which has the distinction of being the largest volunteer-based emergency medical service system in the United States. Asked whether it's difficult to balance his volunteer work with his MITRE responsibilities, Popiela says he uses a mix of civic time and flex time, which enables him to work out alternative schedules with his site leader and sponsors. This enables him to get the job done at MITRE while still pursuing his volunteer endeavors. "I do a lot of the volunteering in the evenings and on weekends and holidays, but it's still wonderful to have enough daytime schedule flexibility to be able to complete my volunteer work," he says. Help When It's Most Needed Though Popiela had to go through rigorous training to qualify as a City of Virginia Beach EMT, the role was not new to him. "I first did EMT work in the 1970s in California, so I was familiar with it," he recalls. He also was not completely new to volunteering, having previously tutored computer science students. He says all his volunteer work is rewarding, but finds being an EMT volunteer particularly gratifying. This is because of the help the service provides to people in desperate circumstances, regardless of their ability to pay. "We operate 24/7 and we do it for free," Popiela says. "Many communities will charge $500 for an ambulance ride. For some people, it means the difference between going to the hospital and not going, even if they really need it, because they can't afford it." Though riding the ambulance can be nerve-wracking, he says the city's EMT training program provides tools to help volunteers deal with the stress. "You know what to do and you just do it," Popiela says. "You really have to adjust what you're doing on the fly. That's what I find exciting. You have to constantly adapt to the situation you find. "The most rewarding thing is that in many cases you're the only person there to help. When people are aged and fall down, if they live alone, they can lie there for five or six hours. For them that's the worst day of their lives," Popiela says. "What we do is help people on the worst day of their lives." —by Maria S. Lee
Page last updated: November 21, 2011 | Top of page |
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