Nothing amateur about UVM's student-run rescue

University of Vermont student rescuers race from class to duty, forging tight bonds while gaining real-life expertise as they deal with over-doses, heart-attacks and sometimes crap.

"I was thinking, I should be upset because it’s four in the morning and I’m standing in diarrhea water. But I was in such a good mood. I thought I should really keep doing this," UVM sophomore Cami Pontarelli said on Friday, describing a particularly ornery emergency medical call that involved transporting a woman with gastrointestinal distress to the UVM medical Center.

Pontarelli was proud of her ability to take a patient's vital signs, to seamlessly assist other emergency workers and finally, to hold a patient's hand in the back of the ambulance during a tough moment.

Since 1972 student adrenaline junkies have volunteered to ensure the safety of the university's staff and students as well as residents of surrounding communities. Last year the group received 1,600 calls. A new $1.4 million building for the group, funded by alumni and donors, opened for business in December.

The building still had that fresh paint smell just before New Year's eve.

A handful of students along with Pontarelli helped man the station at 284 East Ave. over winter break. The crew was just waking up at 9 a.m. on Dec. 29 after an early call kept squad members hyper-alert while the rest of Burlington monitored weather apps from the comfort of their beds.

More: Local cancer survivors beat odds on weight loss goals with help of two UVM med students

The students loved their new digs, and not just for the comfy well-lit space to relax and study.

"We have room in the bay for our primary and our back up ambulances," UVM Rescue Director of Operations Kiley Baillargeon said. Baillargeon, a senior at UVM explained that while this was a bonus during the winter months it added to the crew's overall readiness to deploy.

UVM Rescue's ambulance serves as Burlington Fire Department rescue team's third city ambulance. So when the Burlington Fire Department responded to the Aug. 3 fire that tore through the university's historic Torrey Hall, the student rescue team was there to back up the firefighters while their own reserve unit served Burlington.

More: Scientists laud firefighters' care of UVM plant collection

"We put another truck in service and kept running back to back calls in the city. They didn’t have to call in another ambulance service," Baillargeon said. Burlington and the surrounding communities rely on each other for mutual aid in emergencies, just as the students depend on each other to get through particularly traumatic calls.

"It’s a team effort. We are all very much connected and therefore each other," junior Elena Sayers said. "If it’s a really bad call we all support each other."

"We are always here whenever, like a family," sophomore Amanda Locke said.

Alumni of the club said it's been like that from the very beginning.

"We still stay in touch," founding member Jack Schmidt said. "It was a life-changing experience."

Paula Cope, one of the first members of the club says she still stops by, but more to bring shopping bags full of Al's french fries than to jump in the back of the ambulance. Cope is now the career counselor for the Sustainable Innovation MBA Program at UVM and co-director of the Case Competition Program.

"We took real calls from the beginning: suicides, stabbings, 24/7/365," Cope said. The group took on the motto: pride, service and community.

"The tradition we created has stood the test of time," Cope said.

Cope said the club's start had some bump. Female EMTs were rare in the early 1970s.

Women weren't allowed in the fire house, prompting the UVM squad to get its own training regiment established. And nurses were wary of having young men and woman sharing squad quarters.

With adrenaline, youth and close quarters, relationships did form. Founding member Jack Schmidt said he married crew member Joanne Johnson, who graduated after him.

Baillargeon, a current member of the squad, copped to being in a relationship with a former member of the rescue team.

The serious business of the club draws a certain type of person.

Stacey Lazarus, the first EMT instructor, was also a ski patroler in New York and came to the group with a certification.

"We kept trying to raise the bar," Lazarus said of his training program. His team members attested drilling in every rescue scenario he could dream up.

"I look at these kids and I can't believe I was ever that young," Lazarus said. "They are far and beyond what we were able to do."

The first hurdle students who want to take part have to face is an intense 12 day check list with pages of questions from how the respiratory system works to how to coordinate with outside agencies.

If they don't wash out, the students proceed to a 12 week deep drive and begin to take a position in the back of the ambulance. Then comes a six credit EMT course on campus. And for those who want to be a crew chief, there is an advanced EMT course. Because to fully staff an ambulance the squad needs one advanced EMT and at least one regular EMT.

Studying comes naturally to most crew members.

"For a lot of us, we are all first and foremost here for school," Sayers said. "We all chose hard sciences for coursework, so we have to have good time management skills."

Most squad members are science majors with more than half in either pre-med or on a nursing track, according to Baillargeon.

Some students said the ability to gain real world experience before medical school as a volunteer EMT was what drew them to campus.

Freshman Mason Martell, one of the newest recruits, said he started the year in as a biomedical engineering major, but his involvement with the rescue team changed his outlook.

"I found I’m way more into life science," Martell said. His goal after graduation is medical school. Pontarelli too was seriously reconsidering her future path. She said she was probably going to change major in animal science to something more human centered.

All the students gathered in kitchen agreed that it was hard to imagin their college experience any other way - and they said they wouldn't want to.

"All our friends are here," sophomore Locke said. And what they do makes it hard to relate to the rest of the student population.

A typical day could begin running a crazy call and end in class, just like any other student, according to Baillargeon.

"But you sit there in class learning about cells thinking, I just pushed NARCAN this morning," Baillargeon said.

Contact Nicole Higgins DeSmet ndesmet@freepressmedia.com or 802-660-1845. Follow her on Twitter @NicoleHDeSmet.