On March 27, 2009, five students from Darton College in Albany, Georgia traveled to Marietta, GA to experience a day in the life of an Emergency Medical Technician. These students are in training to become Emergency Medical Technician-Intermediates and the Heroes of the small Georgia community of Georgetown-Quitman consolidated. Quitman is a rural Georgia county with about 2,500 residents and the only county in the state of Georgia that currently doesn’t have an ambulance service to respond to the emergency needs of the citizens there. Thanks to these EMT students who will immediately go to work for Georgetown-Quitman EMS and the philanthropic support of MetroAtlanta Ambulance Service, Georgetown-Quitman should have an ambulance service up and running by June 1, 2009.
The Darton College students arrived Friday afternoon and spent most of the day in classes with Metro Atlanta Ambulance’s management team learning the legalities and inter workings of Metro Atlanta’s EMS System. On Saturday morning they reported for duty and spent 24-hours riding with MetroAtlanta Ambulance crewmembers responding to the 9-1-1 Emergency Medical needs of residents in Cobb County, whose population exceeds more than 700,000 people. At the end of the 24-shift the students had a new appreciation for the EMS profession and had some real-life experiences and newfound confidence they will need to respond to the 9-1-1 EMS needs of the Georgetown-Quitman community.