At last, the media shines a positive light on us!

[StreetDoc67]

I went to Esquire.com but couldn't find the article. I don't read the magazine but will have to grab this issue if only for this one thing.

http://www.canada.com/Ottawa+paramed...089/story.html

Ottawa paramedic, Esq.?: How one Canadian became the star subject of a major U.S. magazine
By Joanne Chianello, Canwest News ServiceJuly 19, 2009

OTTAWA - He's not an actor, a model, a fashion icon or a handsome politician - and certainly not a scantily clad starlet.

So how is it that the Ottawa-raised Darryl Wilton, a respected paramedic but self-professed regular guy, is the subject of a six-page spread in the August issue of Esquire, sandwiched between photos of a semi-nude Mary-Louise Parker making a pie and an interview with Francis Ford Coppola?

Oddly enough, it started with an Indianapolis butcher shop.

Last year, Esquire writer Tom Chiarella spent several weeks working as a meat vendor, chronicling the experience. When published, the piece was so successful that it - and the entire ``steak'' package it anchored - won a U.S. National Magazine Award.

The overwhelming reader response led editors at the big-time American magazine to consider sending their writers to apprentice at other jobs.

One of those reporters was Chris Jones.

The 35-year-old Ottawa writer began his professional writing career at the National Post and began working at the New York-based magazine in 2002. There, he's picked up a couple of National Magazine Awards.

Jones was drawn to the prospect of spending several weeks working at an unfamiliar job, immersing himself in its nitty-gritty details, understanding the psyche of those who do it day in, day out.

So early this year, Jones and his editor batted about ideas for occupations he might profile: Bricklayer? Mechanic?

When ``somehow, paramedic came up and I jumped at it,'' said Jones.

Jones called the Professional Paramedics Association of Ottawa - a volunteer organization to which most of the city's 400 paramedics belong - to make his pitch, and was told that civilian ride-alongs aren't usually allowed.

But if there was someone who could make it happen, it was the association's president: Darryl Wilton.

Wilton, 36, had wanted to be a paramedic since he was 17. That's when a family friend had brought Wilton along on a shift. (The rules were a little more lax in those days.)

``It hit me like a pile of bricks,'' said Wilton. ``We had an asthma attack, a motor-vehicle collision. There was a death that night on the highway. I instantaneously changed my whole direction, my whole trajectory.''

Wilton - who happens to subscribe to Esquire - said he was intrigued by Jones's request. He said he liked the idea of shedding light on the complexity and importance of his profession.

But Wilton was also wary. There were regulations to deal with. Just handling the details of the Esquire photographer took an enormous amount of time. Under privacy laws, the photos couldn't show a patient's face, the inside of a private residence or even the licence plate of a nearby car.

Then there was the problem of what to do with Jones.

The concept of Esquire's ``Stories About Working'' series was for the writer to apprentice for several weeks to lend first-hand immediacy to the depiction of the job.

For the other two pieces in the August issue, writers assisted a plumber and a chef - harried jobs, to be sure, but not the life-and-death situations a paramedic sees every day.

``We knew we couldn't make him a paramedic, obviously,'' said Wilton.

Instead, he and his colleagues put Jones through two weeks of intensive training on all the equipment paramedics use, how to measure and draw medications and what those drugs do. Jones had to pass a couple of written tests.

Part of the initiation was to help Jones understand the decisions paramedics make on the job, said Wilton, but also to prepare him emotionally.

Jones spent about 50 hours in the ambulance, or the ``truck'' in paramedic- speak, last February.

``It was cold as hell,'' he said.

On his first shift, they were called to the scene of a dead elderly woman, lying on the cement floor of her garage, frozen, with her knee blown out. On his last shift, he watched as Wilton and crew brought a man back to life.

``I spend my life writing about guys who do neat things,'' said Jones ``And when I was doing this job, I was thinking, `Maybe I should spend some time doing the neat thing, instead of writing about it.' ''

[fishy]

Awesome. Finally some good journalism - not often seen these days.
If anyone gets a hand on the article, please post a link.

[Peacheywoo]

Like this??

http://www.ottawaparamedics.ca/admin...ChrisJones.pdf - I think thats the one

[fdnyemt5330]

Very nice, most of it anyhow.

[StreetDoc67]

Wow, a 99% wonderful article!!! Thanks for geting it Peach!

Of course, the writer could have left out the jab at us lesser educated, "Junkie Mercenar(y)" American medics.

I don't think we'll ever live down Bringing Out the Dead, the general public just didn't get what the movie was about so we'll have to suffer as a result.

[fdnyemt5330]

OOOOOOOOOO that junkie mercenary crack pissed me off. Everyone should contact Esquire in regards to that.

[fdnyemt5330]

I am going to find out this fucknuts' e-mail address. Either that or I am going to write one fucking scathing letter to Esquire.

Remember what e did with Men's Health and the EMS slandering article they were planning? We did it once, we can do it again. Let's get Esquie to make this douchebag write an apology for that statement.

[fdnyemt5330]

I am about to gather some more info, and then I am going to write a letter to the editor taking this pinhead to task.

[BCoFD vollie]

good article, I am glad to see him take the time to understand what we do. Give him about 3-4 years of this job and bringing out the dead will probably start to make more sense to him too.

[tom10406]

Finally someone here painted our profession in a positive light. There is a lot of mis information about Paramedics here. We have a provincial association, that is supposed to promote the profession to the public and elected officials, but for the most part all they have mangaged to do is piss off those they are supposed to promote. Up until a couple of years ago, promoting ourselves to the public was almost un heard of. We still have alot of ignorance on what it is we do, not only from the public, but our politicians and hospital staff. I can get into that later and if any one wants get into how our system was and is set up along with how our training and certification runs.

I think his comments about the US system didn't need to be made. I too will be sending a letter to Esquire magazine.