Women in traditionally male professions

[PeppermintPatty]

First, in 1980 in Canada there were NO PARAMEDICS. The very first Paramedic graduating class from Humber College was 22 people in 1987. My cohort had to make due with the same medical equipment that the Canadian Army used in WW2. No drugs, no injectables, no intubation, no monitors, no hand held radios. WE were called Emergency Medical Attendants. We used our heads, and our backs to deal with what we saw at the scene. NO one at that time had any sort of therapy being offered , you were supposed to deal with it, on your own. Sleep was the universal "stress reliver " on the night shift. In 1980 the term PTSD was unheard of. Lets remember that my time period was 1977 to 1989, so MANY years ago.

People quit? Sure, or try to get a lateral transfer to another City of Toronto job, such as with the Parks department, planting flowers and trees, or the road patrol, as a supervisor checking road conditions. 2 of my partners did laterals out of the Ambulance department. One went to the city jail, as a guard, the other went to the Board of Education as a caretaker. At that time, the Ambulance guys were the highest paid job in the City Union. No one else made as much money as we did. combining the hourly pay, the over time pay, the stat holiday pay, and court and vacation pay. We also only worked 22 days out of six weeks, the rest of the days were "rest days " . On the other hand, it was VERY easy to get hurt on that job. Fall down a set of icy outside stairs, while carrying a 250 pound person, in the winter. I once spent 8 months on the "injured list " with a seperated shoulder and 5 broken ribs, from just such a fall in January. 12 hour shifts either 7 am to 7 pm, or 7 pm to 7 am. Rotate every two weeks, days to nights.

Today, the Toronto Paramedics are graduates of a two year College program. The department has over 1400 Paramedics, with three grades of rank. A newly graduated Ontario Paramedic starts at around $59,000 a year. Year two is about $69,000, aby by year 5 they are grossing over $100,000 a year or more. The highest paid are the Air Ambulance grade three Paramedics, who only do air evac calls across our huge Province. ( Ontario is almost exactly the same size as Texas is ).

People still do dumb things, every day in the city. Example, a 19 year old girl who decided to use gasoline to remove grease from a rug in her basement apartment, then lit up a smoke.......Dead of third degree burns and a burned lung system. Pronounced at the scene, no cardiac activity on the monitor for 5 minutes, a Coroner's call. Death by stupidity is a still a common thing. JimB.

1977 - Ambulance and paramedic care isn’t something I’m familiar with now, let alone almost 50 years ago. I hadn’t thought of PTSD not even being recognized. It must have been by 1989 cause that’s when I was diagnosed with it.

You paramedics had to basically wing it and with no type of recovery treatment offered, it must have been unbearable at times. Paramedics have to deal with trauma .
I can’t imagine doing anything like that.

That work must have been exceptionally brutal. You probably didn’t have the same body moving equipment as they have now and some people are really big. Five broken ribs. That must have heard. I’ve had 2 fractured ribs befits before. Coughing is rough.

Did people quit due to it being too difficult.? That’s very stressful work. I’ve known a couple of paramedics before and their shifts were crazy.
It’s good there were other places they could get suitable work.

The money was very good. My 2 friends worked in Toronto also, the North York area. They lived in the area I did so definitely made a good wage.
Days off were plentiful for my two friends also. They were usually available to go to concerts, parties etc.

Toronto paramedics only have 2 years education? Ok that’s actually shocking. I generally thought they had much more education than that and higher salaries. Considering what you guys do I thought it would be much more. I’ve never known an air paramedic before but I bet they must have to be in good shape.

Ontario is huge. I lived there for 54 years. In the late ‘80’s I was in Edmonton working but only stayed for 2 years. I didn’t realize Ontario was close in Texas in size. That’s interesting.

People definitely do stupid things.
That’s very sad about being burned to death from your own doing.

You are very brave to have taken on that type of work when you did. There are things you mentioned that I hadn’t even thought of.