Being a mom in the EMS world
In a male-dominated career, being a female first responder can affect how a woman is a wife or a parent.
One local woman spoke to her experience in the medical field and how it has affected her.
Though there have been improvements to the mental health awareness for first responders over the year, no amount of therapy can take away the memory of certain calls.
Erika Walton remembers a call early in her days of being an EMT.
A call that challenged her reasoning for wanting to be in the medical field in the first place.
“It was the only call in my 13 years on the department that when I got to the hospital the battalion chief at the time called my husband and said come and pick her up because she’s a wreck,” Walton said.
A big reason for Walton wanting to work in the medical field was to help people, something she is thankful her husband can relate to.
“To see somebody take their last breath is hard to it to internalize and thank God I have my husband who is also in the same field that i can use as a sounding board and he knew that when he would ask how was your day and I would say it was bad, he would know where I was coming from. If I didn’t have that kind of support system, I don’t know what I would do,” Walton said.
Being a mom in the medical field can be tough, sometimes having to think it could happen to your own child.
“If I went into it with my mom heart then my working hard would not be able to do it,” Walton said.
Walton also worked as a dispatcher, a position that she believes is the very first responder to a situation
“The first responder starts as soon as they pick up that phone they are that person’s lifeline you’ve got people screaming at you and they’re having an emergency you have to remain calm,” Walton said.
In a career that comes with trauma, healing resources are necessary.
“We have incident command debriefings after traumatic calls or stressful calls that really helps having peers to reach out to right away there are EAP programs built within our system to help us go and get so many counseling sessions for free,” Walton said.
Walton wants girls to know that though being a first responder can be difficult, it is a rewarding career.
“I’m very proud of where the fire and EMS service has come because when I started there was not a lot of women in the fire service, so I would just tell a little girls don’t let anybody tell you-you can’t do it because if you want it bad enough you’ll find a way to do it.”
Walton wants first responders to know that asking for help is not a sign of weakness.
She hopes that classes can be made available to teach spouses about the life of a first responder.
