Juniors complete EMS training, prepare for career

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The Darlington Volunteer Fire Company, where Suman works, displays its emergency fire trucks. Suman has volunteered there for two years.

With any luck, very few of the teachers, staff, and students at NH will ever have to be in need of an ambulance. However, if they do, they will be in good hands.  Juniors Taylor Suman and Tallin Pucher both volunteer their time as part of local EMS crews.

Pucher got involved with the EMS portion of the Jarrettsville Fire Department a few months ago after HIS/HER mom got in a severe car accident. Pucher added, “I just wanted to be able to save people like they saved my mom.”

Suman began volunteering about two years ago, because she was, “always interested in helping people and saving lives.”

The two have similar duties at the firehouse, which includes making sure everything in and around the ambulance is clean and well organized, and providing support for the advanced life support paramedics.

In order to have the responsibility of working with the paramedics, Pucher and Suman had to go through extensive training first. “There’s an EMT 1 class, you have to go through six months of that, and there’s different classes you can take the higher up you go,” Pucher states. Suman includes that she had to learn CPR and first aid, and her department has monthly trainings.

Suman and Pucher both devote much of their time to the programs. Pucher spends several hours every day at the firehouse, while Suman says for her, it’s about six hours every week.

The two students are also looking to the future in their field. Pucher wants to, “become a paramedic, the highest level you can possibly be.” As for Suman, she wants to be, “a flight paramedic for the Maryland State Police,” which involves riding on the Medevac helicopter in emergency situations.

Suman is also doing the Harford County Cadet program her senior year, which entails going to school half the day, and then entering career training at the local firehouse. Cadets can go into the fire or EMS rescue program, and can receive training in several fields, like Hazardous Material Operations, Firefighting, and Vehicle and Machinery Operations.