Veteran medical emergency technicians and paramedics have spent decades intubating patients and performing many other medical procedures in overcrowded ambulances. Today, a growing number of EMS is leaving the box forever. The reason: COVID-19 makes the task too dangerous.
“I knew he’d probably kill me if I went there and had several exposures, and I’m not a chicken,” said Robert Baer, EMT in New York with 29 years of work, 23 of them as an instructor. “I love the job, but my doctors told me I shouldn’t faint in the field, which is very dangerous.”
Baer was one of the first to respond to the 9/11 terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center, and now suffers from asthma, chronic bronchitis, sleep apnea and other situations that make him more vulnerable to COVID-19.
In March, 59-year-old Baer was scheduled to be sent to Elmhurst Hospital in Queens, New York, which at the time was awash with coronavirus cases as the infection crossed the city. But he said the dangers were too high due to his own pre-existing fitness problems.
Instead of being exposed to an avalanche of inflamed patients in Queens, Baer decided to retire last month, finishing his career at least a year earlier than expected. This disqualified him from receiving his full pension, and Baer estimates that he has given up between $2,000 and $4,000 a year in pension benefits, a resolution he regrets.
“I thought it was an intimate life. It’s not about cash, it’s about fitness and survival,” he said, noting the emotional cost of the funerals of colleagues who died as a result of COVID-19.
Oren Barzilay, president of Local 2507 FDNY-EMS, representing Doctors in New York City, about 60 medical emergency technicians, many of them over 50, had left the branch since March.
“Other people like to put an end to 30 years of paintings to maximize their pension, however, I’ve detected a trend in the last few weeks that they don’t care about that anymore. As soon as they get their eligibility, 25, they leave, ” he says.
Another thing that can stimulate this exodus is the modest salary EMT staff gets for stressful paints at the most productive time and now, with the potentially lethal pandemic. In New York, a medical emergency technician’s salary starts at about $35,000 and peaks at $50,000, according to Barzilay. Nationally, the paintings will pay an average of $38,830 consistent with the year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“They see the dangers associated with employment and low wages, and they just don’t value it,” Barzilay said.
And it’s not just the ones who retire who leave the emergency for a career. Michael MacNeil, president of the Boston EMS Association, representing local doctors, said that since May, he has noticed that a growing number of staff with only a few years on the table resign.
Similarly, there has been a “significant decrease” in programs for EMT vacancies this year, MacNeil said. In a typical year, the branch has up to 800 programs for 48 recruitment positions. This year’s elegance has 16 members, according to MacNeil.
“We don’t care about other people and we don’t have enough qualified applicants to fill the available seats,” he said. “We can’t fill jobs.”
Selena Xie, president of the Austin EMS Association, which represents doctors in Austin, Texas, said 25 others have left their EMS jobs in the region this year, already surpassing the annual average of 30 departures.
“We know for sure that the virus is helping others to make the resolution that this is not an ideal task right now and that their own physical condition and that of their families are in danger,” Xie said.
Steven Kleinberg, 56, a paramedic in Brooklyn, New York, also decided to retire this year because he “will go in one piece.”
“COVID charges me a lot, and at first I wasn’t sure if I was retiring, but the pandemic for me,” he told CBS MoneyWatch. “If I worked longer, I would be entitled to more money, but I’m at the point where I’ll take what I’ve earned.”
Instead, Kleinberg will do so about his secondary work, whose good fortune in recent months is some other tragic sign of the times: running as funeral director.
“It’s a safer way to make a living at this point in my life,” he said. “I wish I had a long and satisfying retirement.”
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