16 APRIL 11, 2019 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
Grover Cleveland program helps train future EMTs
BY MARK HALLUM
MHALLUM@SCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
@RIDGEWOODTIMES
Students can turn their skills
into income – and save lives –
sooner rather than later with
Grover Cleveland High School’s EMT
program which can prepare them for
certifi cation by age 17.
But the program, which has
already put students directly onto
the job market, struggles financially
since the program is costly to run
and requires funding from outside
sources, namely Councilman
Robert Holden.
Kamila Grala, a senior, remembers
reviving an elderly victim of
cardiac arrest during a shift on an
ambulance crew and how it felt to be
part of a busy effort to save a life.
“When we got there, paramedics
were already doing CPR … But we
had to rotate, it gets tiring, so I was
able to go in and do CPR and I got
his pulse back,” Grala said. “After
that I rode in the ambulance with
paramedics making sure he was
stable enough to transport. Once
we got to the hospital, nurses took
over because he did flatline again
and I’m not sure if they brought him
back. I got another call.”
Students attending the program
do two 16-hour tours on ambulances
and a 12-hour tour in the emergency
room of North Central Bronx
Hospital.
Some students spoke of treating
stab wounds, gunshot wounds
and delivering babies during
their tours.
One student, Laura Pachard,
remembered helping to treat a man
in the Bronx had a gunshot wound
in the head and the abdomen.
Having started in 2014, about
four of students have gone into the
FDNY, local ambulance providers
one has event served as an EMT
in the military and completed for
years with tours in war zones, the
instructors said.
The age requirement to take
the state certification exam is 176,
meaning the 20 students in the
program have job training straight
out of high school.
“We’re working with City Council
to try to get more money for EMT
workers, because right now they’re
not paid nearly enough,” Holden
said. “In fact, I think they should
double it.”
Average salaries for EMTs in the
city fall around $31,000, according
to Glassdoor. But many of the
students express the desire to use
their EMT work as a springboard
to better positions in the medical
field.
“I thought I was going to be a
pediatric nurse, but I decided to
actually go for full doctor,” Grala
said. “I thought EMT would get me
that extra step forward in this kind
of field.”
Karen Moreno, who leads the
program at the school, said her effort
to get funding from politicians was
fruitless and the funds provided
by Holden’s office were critical to
keeping the costly program active.
Students at Grover Cleveland High School practice extracting victims from
car accidents. Photo: Mark Hallum/RIDGEWOOD TIMES
Solar power and citations at Ridgewood meet
The Ridgewood Property Owners and Civic Association learned more about solar power during the organization’s April 4 meeting at the Ridgewood
Older Adult Center. Matthew Brill of Em Power Solar informed attendees about new tax incentives and green energy alternatives available to
Ridgewood homeowners. City Councilman Robert Holden also stopped by and formally installed the RPOCA executive board and board of directors
for another year of duty. The members also received citations from Holden for their volunteer work. Photos courtesy of Paul Kerzner
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