The primary obstacle for a BC Ambulance emergency medical call taker is to keep the person on the end of the line calm.
Most people who call 9-1-1 are seeing something they’re not used to - such as a car accident - and it’s a “natural human reaction” to feel panic, fear and confusion, said emergency medical call taker Sean McLaughlin.
“A big part of our job is just trying to calm people down first so we can get relevant information,” he said.
But staying calm helps call takers get critical information and dispatch an ambulance.
McLaughlin said sometimes they get calls and they know it’s a paramedic on the other end of the phone.
And that’s how Cambie secondary student, and student first responder, Tony Ly sounded on the 9-1-1 call on Feb. 9, 2023 after two students had been hit by a car in front of the school.
“I got that vibe (from Tony),” McLaughlin said at a recent event where Ly was given the Good Samaritan Award from BC Emergency Health Services (BCEHS).
“To hear the way you conducted yourself, to see that you’re aware of crowd control, to see how quick you were with the patients, it was absolutely outstanding. To see you do the things we expect of adult trained first responders was pretty impressive.”
Ly received the award last week surrounded by a team of Cambie secondary first responders, and joined by McLaughlin, public information officer Brian Twaites, high school first responder program coordinator Jeff Watts and Robert Groenhof, clinical operations manager for Richmond and South Vancouver.
McLaughlin recounted the incident, how Ly assessed the situation, prioritized care for the person who needed urgent care, used his jacket to apply direct pressure to a laceration and maintained the C-spine, all the while communicating critical information.
“While maintaining his position with the patient, he ensured the scene remained as clear and organized as possible by delegating tasks such as moving the car to get the patient to a safer area,” McLaughlin said.
“When paramedics and firefighters arrived, Tony helped manage the bystanders, clearing space for the emergency responders to work. He also remained on the scene to provide a detailed witness account to the RCMP.”
“Tony’s quick thinking, leadership and decisive actions played a vital role in ensuring the patients received critical care until emergency services arrived,” McLaughlin added.
The high school first responder program was established in 1995 at Cambie secondary – with its launch in the very room where Ly received his Good Samaritan Award, explained Watts.
Thirty-five schools in the Lower Mainland now have first responder programs with 678 students involved this year. Graduates of the program have gone on to a wide variety of medical careers and some have become paramedics.
“Whether it’s crowd control, treatment or a reassuring word, this is what we expect our high school first responders to do, and this is what Tony did,” Watts said at the ceremony.
Ly said he's now in the process of applying to the Justice Institute of B.C. to become a paramedic.
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