One of the first emergency calls John Singer responded to after joining the Moneta Rescue Squad was for a patient suffering cardiac arrest. Despite Singer’s best efforts, the man could not be resuscitated. “It wasn’t until we were cleaning up and got the paperwork that I realized he was a friend of mine,” said Singer, squad captain. “I’m fortunate in that I don’t see faces.”
That uncommon ability has allowed Singer to volunteer with the squad for 12 years, during which he’s seen, without seeing, a variety of trauma. He was one of the first on the scene in 2005 when four teens died after their car crashed into a small utility truck on Diamond Hill Road in Moneta. “We walked up and quickly determined that all four of them were deceased,” said Singer. “There was nothing I could do for them.” Not everyone can see that kind of trauma without falling apart, he said. “We lose members for that very reason,” said Singer. “You have people that wind up seeing gross things like that, and it’s really traumatic.” Sue Gordon, one of about 40 squad members, said in those instances, they can lean on each other. “This group is a family,” she said. “We help each other get through these things.”
Being an EMT is not an easy job. In addition to witnessing death and racing the clock to save lives, members of the Moneta Rescue Squad have sporadic schedules, sometimes getting awakened in the middle of the night by their pagers. “Most of our members still have to work for a living,” said Singer. “It’s really a big time commitment.” It’s hard on family members as well. When Singer first joined the squad, his wife, Micki, found herself home alone more often than not. “She got tired of me running off all hours of the day and night,” he said. “She finally got tired of just being left at home.” So she joined the squad too. It allowed her to spend more time with her husband and gave her an outlet to serve the community.
Today, she runs more calls than her husband, “which she never fails to tell me about,” said Singer. He works about 20 hours per week in Bedford Memorial Hospital’s emergency department. Singer said he started volunteering several years ago because “I realized that made me a better EMT in the back of the ambulance.” Today, he’s a paid employee. Sometimes he’s working when the squad arrives with a patient. Woe be unto them if something isn’t right. “They know I’m going to be looking at them with the evil eye if things aren’t perfect,” said Singer. He oversees a squad of about 40 volunteers.
They average 1,000 calls per year. Singer said for about one quarter of those, Bedford County Dispatch tells the squad to disregard a call before it arrives on scene because another volunteer rescue squad has the situation under control. The other 750 calls are for a smattering of emergencies. One of the most common is difficulty breathing, said Singer. There are calls for vomiting, abdominal pain, chest pain, domestic abuse, automobile accidents, heart attacks, etc. “My least favorite is the drunks,” said Singer. “I never cease to be amazed that people call 911 because someone is intoxicated. Most of the time, the only thing wrong with them is they’re intoxicated.” One of the most rewarding calls is for diabetics who have gone into an insulin-related coma, he said. After the EMTs administer glucose via IV, the patient clears up almost instantly.
“It’s like you take a person from the doorstep of death because their blood sugar is so low and then they’re 100 percent,” said Singer. “It’s right before your eyes.”
