Veteran first responder take s a well earned rest | The Examiner | December 11, 2023 - video Dailymotion

43 year veteran of the Ambulance Service Gary Macreadie embraces a well earned retirement. Video Rod Thompson

Transcript

00:00 When I started, we started without any training and did two weeks of in-house training and

00:10 then we were working and didn't do any official training for three months.

00:14 That was back in the days when, in Victoria, where they decided all country stations or

00:19 headquarters were going to go two-man cars because before that there were only one person

00:23 in every ambulance.

00:24 And the government said, "Nup, we'll make them all two-man cars," and suddenly they

00:27 employed heaps of people and they couldn't get them all into training straight away.

00:33 And we actually started three months before our training.

00:35 So I spent 10 years in Victoria, most of that working at a branch station.

00:39 I was also part of the region's helicopter rescue crew at the time before I left there.

00:46 So I used to work on the helicopter as well.

00:49 Being in the ambulance service, apparently, for me was more of a lifestyle than a job

00:54 and I always enjoyed going to work.

00:55 There was never a day where I'd ever got up and said, "I don't want to go to work today,"

00:59 because I enjoyed going to work.

01:00 I enjoyed what I did.

01:01 So I've never felt it was too taxing for me.

01:05 No, if you enjoy the job you're doing, it's not a job.

01:09 It's always memorable when you deliver a baby.

01:11 That's always something when you do that and I've done a few of those.

01:16 Other things that stand out, I suppose, are some of the fatalities you've been to in road

01:21 accidents.

01:22 I mean, they're always the ones that are hardest.

01:24 And other things that stand out too, when you've actually had a successful resuscitation

01:28 for someone who's been in cardiac arrest, and you do get some of those.

01:32 That's always satisfying, especially when you meet up with some of them later on and

01:36 have a coffee with them, which I've done.

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