“He really is an angel! And an absolute hero.”
That’s how the mother of a girl seriously hurt near Cambie secondary in February described Grade 11 student Tony Ly who rushed to the scene of the accident and immediately applied the emergency-responder training he’d received at school.
On that day in February, Ly was at the school field waiting for rugby practice to begin when he heard a loud crash coming from Cambie Road.
He rushed out and realized there had been a bad accident and two Cambie students were hurt.
Assessing the situation, he realized the “main patient” was bleeding profusely from a laceration on the head and needed intervention.
He grabbed his jacket, wrapped it around her head and applied pressure, all the while holding her head and neck in place, until paramedics arrived.
The paramedics then asked him to control the crowd to allow them to do their work as a large gathering of students was forming.
While the situation was shocking for Ly, it cemented his desire to be a paramedic.
“This whole case was the tipping point – I want to help others as well,” Ly said.
Ly is part of Cambie secondary’s Medical Science program, and he is completing his first year of the two-year emergency responder training.
Students who successfully complete the two-year program at Cambie can apply to be licensed by BC Ambulance and start working as paramedics – as a first-level emergency medical responder.
Cambie secondary is the only high school in B.C. that has a program that directly leads to a paramedic career.
Students must apply to the program and those accepted need to show a certain level of maturity and generally an interest in medical professions, explained the program’s teacher Alyssa Wood.
Some of her former students have gone on to nursing or physiotherapy.
Ly plans to apply to Columbia Paramedic Institute in Langley to continue his paramedic training.
The Cambie program trains students to be emergency medical responders, which is the first level, but paramedics can then train for higher levels: primary care, advanced care, critical care and specialist paramedics. Furthermore, there are also community paramedics and infant transport paramedics.
Wood has been teaching the emergency-responder courses at Cambie for more than a year.
Being a paramedic is a great first career, explained Wood, who worked for one year as a paramedic and then moved on to work for non-profits and eventually trained as a teacher.
Students in the program often take part in events to provide first aid, gaining valuable hands-on experience, something that can’t be taught in a classroom, Wood said. Treating actual injuries and medical situations teaches them that these are real people they’re dealing with.
Ly has been at events like the BMO Marathon and the CARHA hockey tournament in Richmond. He’s treated heart attacks, fainting, broken wrists – even a broken nose.
Wood was impressed that Ly was able to “disassociate” when he treated the students at the car crash as this is sometimes hard to do when you know the patient.
“That’s not an easy thing to overcome,” she said, adding, however, Ly remained “calm and cool.”
While not all the students in the first-responder courses will become paramedics, Wood said “every single one of them will use these skills” in day-to-day situations.
Kaylee Paterson, who Ly helped after the accident, has returned to school part-time.
“I am grateful for everyone that was there at the scene who saved my life,” Kaylee said.
She is also “very grateful” for the love and support she received during her hospital stay and during recovery – from friends, family and the lacrosse community. Kaylee has been cleared to play lacrosse for the fall.
The other student is still healing at home, explained Cambie principal Marcy Timmins.
