For the ambulance crew at Ko Olina, working in EMS isn’t like the movies make it seem.
Emergency Medical Technician Rico Traxler told Aloha State Daily, “It’s not constant action. It comes in waves.”
Aloha State Daily recently rode along with the crew of Honolulu EMS’ newest station on the Leeward Coast and witnessed their response to several 911 calls.
The crew at Ko Olina has responded to more than 300 911 calls since they moved in on Oct. 4. Between 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., the crew responds to calls from Kahe Point to the edge of Kapolei, and to other areas when needed.
Shayne Enright, a spokesperson for Honolulu EMS, told ASD via email that “the Department does see making Ko Olina into a 24-hour unit a priority but there are other areas of the island that also need more coverage and limited funding, so there is no date for this as of now.”
The ambulance at Ko Olina was purchased by the City and County of Honolulu for about $420,000 earlier this year, which includes equipment, according to Enright.
Paramedic Will Ferrulli, acting supervisor of the station, told ASD that he initially struggled with the disconnect between how EMS is portrayed in the movies and reality.
This difference first struck him when, as an EMT trainee in Seattle, his crew responded to a report of a pregnant woman who unsuccessfully attempted to rob a laundromat and started complaining of pain after she was arrested.
“That was a very rude of awakening of what this job is,” he said. “It was very apparent very quickly this was not a real call. This lady was in a bad situation, and this is how she thought she could get out of it.”
Ferrulli said that some paramedics and EMTs get burned out if they hold onto the idea that the job is just like cultural portrayals make it seem.
“This job is definitely reducing suffering and giving people dignity in undignified moments,” he said. “When you accept the movie isn’t real life, it’s easier to thrive in this job and find enjoyment and purpose.”
After responding to thousands of calls in eight years in emergency medicine, Ferrulli said that he would never ride a bike without a helmet or ride a motorcycle. Calls where people get dehydrated in the sun are always a good reminder to stay hydrated, he adds.
The crew at Ko Olina responds to an average of seven calls a day; the recent half-shift ridealong included a sick 89-year-old woman in Waipahu, a 79-year-old man who fell in Makakilo and a woman who fell in a government office parking lot.
As Ferrulli and Traxler rushed down H1, Ferrulli adjusted the sirens to encourage drivers to move out of the way.
“You kind of DJ it a little bit,” he said. “Everybody has their way of doing it.”
The most dangerous part of the job, Ferrulli said, is driving with lights and sirens on. He hasn’t been injured on the job but said that fender benders do happen.
The motto of Honolulu EMS is "O Ka Mea Maʻi Ka Mua,” which means “the sick person is first.”
Internationally, more people are using emergency medical services for medical interventions that could be provided in a primary care setting, according to a review published by the National Institute of Health. Ferrulli said that while crews regularly respond to calls that could be addressed by primary care, that’s not their mission and purpose.
Emergency medicine is “challenging, difficult, but that’s that reward of overcoming that makes the job worthwhile,” Ferrulli said.
Ferrulli and Traxler tested their patient’s sensation and vital signs, and assessed injuries in the back of the ambulance.
“We tend to try to stabilize people on scene before we start transporting,” Ferrulli said, adding that they transport people while performing interventions when it’s time sensitive or they cannot stabilize them, such as in cases of strokes, heart attacks and major trauma.
When the crew isn’t responding to 911 calls, they order supplies, review charts, relax and study.
Ferrulli is working toward his bachelor’s degree in emergency medicine from the University of Pittsburg. Paramedics and EMTs are not required to hold a bachelor’s degree in Hawaiʻi, but Ferrulli said that if he made the rules, bachelor’s degrees would be required like they are in Australia, the United Kingdom and Canada.
“I feel like this job has a lot of responsibility and I think it’s important that if you want to do this job that you’re well educated,” he said, adding that he sees being “well educated and well prepared” as a “responsibility to the community.”
Ferrulli was looking for direction and a career after leaving university. His mom, a nurse at a trauma center, encouraged him to go to EMT school to see if he liked medicine.
“There’s a little bit of everything in this job and that’s awesome because there’s no skill cap,” Ferrulli said. “You can learn and learn and learn and never run out of things to get better at.”
Ferrulli said that the variety of calls that they could respond to is also daunting. “You don’t get to choose what’s in front of you and you don’t want to be caught lacking. That’s what keeps me going.”
He worked as an EMT in Seattle for three years before moving to Hawaiʻi in 2021. It was easier to go back to school and get his EMT license at Kapiʻolani Community College than to transfer his license, and Ferrulli said that getting paid to learn was a “good deal” because he loves learning.
EMTs and paramedics differ by the level of education they receive and the types of medical interventions they’re allowed to perform.
Ferrulli said he quickly learned that he wanted to be a paramedic so that he could provide the most care for his patients and went through the 1,600-hour program at Kapiʻolani Community College to earn his paramedic license and associates degree.
“Being an EMT to me is like really limiting,” Ferrulli said. “I’m very much a maximalist. When I was an EMT, it was hard wanting to do more, wanting to be my best, and on a regulatory level, not being able to do that.”
Ferrulli said that the work is physically and mentally taxing, with the department responding to an average of 110,000 911 calls per year.
“The pay is great, we get paid really well, but the pay for the amount of work and amount of responsibility we have does lag,” Ferrulli said.
EMTs make $66,504 per year and paramedics make $85,128 per year, according to Honolulu EMS.
Ferrulli and Traxler agreed that helping people makes the job rewarding and keeps them going through stressful days.
“I really take a lot of satisfaction in knowing that we’re a publicly funded agency, we’re an arm of the government that helps people,” Ferrulli said. “I really think that EMS, we look out for the little guy, we look out for the undeserved. It’s really rewarding to help someone in their time of need.”
Haley Lehman can be reached at haley@alohastatedaily.com.
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