News Detail
Alumni on the Frontlines of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Ben Asack '18, EMT
Quick update about your life after VA
I graduated from Vermont Academy two years ago (2018), and now study Health Science and Emergency Medical Services (EMS) at the University of Vermont. I took a gap year after VA to attend an accelerated paramedic program in Boston, which I will soon graduate from.
When I am not in paramedic school, I work on the ambulance as an emergency medical technician (the entry-level EMS provider) in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
What is your official job/title?
Emergency Medical Technician (EMT)
How has the job changed and/or shifted during the pandemic?
Our 9-11 call volume has skyrocketed, and we see a large number of patients with suspected COVID-19 on a daily basis. Many of them are critically ill, requiring either our paramedics or hospital staff to insert breathing tubes and force oxygen into their lungs.
It's beyond heartbreaking to respond to and stabilize some of these extremely sick patients, who you realize will most likely succumb soon. The hospitals in Boston are no longer allowing visitors, and you are knowingly witnessing some of the last moments these patients and their loved ones will ever have together again.
How can VA alumni and the greater VA community help you and other healthcare professionals?
Please stay at home, practice social distancing, wash your hands, and don't touch your face. If not for yourself, do it for your loved ones, community members, and others who may be at risk. Even if you contract COVID and have mild symptoms, that may not be the case for the elderly or immunocompromised person you could spread it to.
Vermont Academy is a coed college preparatory boarding and day school in southern Vermont, serving grades 9-12 plus a postgraduate year.
