“I graduated high school in 1989 from Bloomington Jefferson in Bloomington, Minnesota. Growing up, I watched the show Emergency!—Johnny and Roy—and that’s what I wanted to do. My dad took me around to some of the schools that had paramedic programs, and one of the guys told us, “You don’t want to do this job.” That stuck with my dad. He talked me into going into nursing, so I started at a local community college. But I had the bug. I wanted to do EMS.
I got my EMT right out of high school and started working for the Bloomington Rescue Squad. It was a BLS ambulance and we were doing 911 calls, so we’d often get there before the paramedics. I was also working at Fairview Southdale Hospital on the ortho-neuro floor, so I was getting exposure both in the hospital and out in the field.
I found out about a new paramedic program in Mankato, Minnesota, at North Mankato Tech College. I moved there, went through the program, and graduated in 1993. I was working as an EMT during that time, including for a small 911 service that covered Canterbury Downs.
When I finished paramedic school, there was a hiring freeze in the Twin Cities, so I moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana. The advice was to go somewhere busy, get experience, and then come back. I worked for Mercy Ambulance Service for six years. It was a great experience. We were the ALS provider for the city and the county. It was busy—shootings, stabbings, inner city violence. At night we had maybe 12 to 15 ambulances running.
That was really my formative time. As an EMT, I wasn’t making decisions. In Fort Wayne, I was thrown right into it. We covered a large county, working with volunteer departments. Sometimes it was a 30- or 45-minute response just to meet them on the side of the road and transfer a patient.
One call that sticks with me was a young guy who had been drinking with friends. They told us he spun the cylinder on a revolver, put it to his head, and pulled the trigger. We walked in, and there was a huge pool of blood.I thought he was dead. Then all of a sudden, he lifted his head and arms. It startled the hell out of me. We started working him, but looking back,it had been hopeless. I’ll never forget that.
After six years, I moved back to Minnesota. I worked for Health One—now Allina—until Hennepin EMS started hiring again. I wanted to be one of those Hennepin County paramedics. Those guys were my idols—the brown uniforms, the gruff personalities. They were the leading edge of paramedicine. I got hired there in 2001 – that was the varsity team! If you wanted to be a paramedic in that region, that’s where you went.
At Hennepin, you’re just thrown right in. It’s two paramedics on a rig, and you run system status management. You could be in the inner city on one call and then in a wealthy suburb on the next. You might go from a homeless patient in a car to someone in a Lexus. There’s no hiding from calls.
I was proud to work there. The respect for paramedics was high. The emergency medicine residents and physicians did all our training, so they knew us. If you told them something, they believed you.
There are a couple calls I’ll never forget. One was out on Lake Minnetonka. Two teenagers drove their car onto the ice, and it broke through. The girl got out and tried to walk to shore but froze to death. When we got there, she was frozen solid on the ice. You could see the tire tracks, the hole, and her footprints. She had made it about halfway.
I would have worked my whole career at Hennepin. I still love it. But my wife was from Omaha, and when our kids were getting to school age, we decided to move back here.
I came to Omaha in 2011 and worked for Omaha Ambulance. I applied to Omaha Fire and didn’t get hired the first time. I kept working, and then I got hired in 2016. I was 45 years old, the oldest in the academy. I think I did pretty well. I had some fire experience already. In Indiana, I had on two volunteer fire departments and even served as a lieutenant. I saw a lot of fire there, especially working nights.
The academy was a lot of fun. John Olson was one of the instructors. He was a big, intimidating guy. One day he told me, “Rue! Give me that squeegee!” I handed it to him, and someone else said, “You can’t give the captain your tool! Get it back!” So I had to go up and take it back from him. That was pretty funny.
I spent my candidate year at Engine 42 with Charlie Oborny, Nick Babe, and Mike Tafoya, then went to Truck 31. I was treated really well at both stations.
My first fire stands out. I had been on the treadmill, so my heart rate was already up. We went to a townhouse fire, and the basement was fully involved. I had the nozzle going down the stairs, and I couldn’t see anything. Zero visibility. I was completely disoriented. I just remember how hot it was. There was this faint orange glow, and I opened the nozzle on it. Once ventilation started, everything cleared, and it was nothing like I had imagined.
After my candidate year, I went to Med 61, then Med 31, where I acted as the Lead Medic for about a year and a half. I worked with a lot of great people.
I went to Med 52 and worked with Dave Keber, then got bumped to Med 41 and later Med 42. Those are tough units, but I liked them. You get a great variety—trauma, medical, long transports. You spend a lot of time with your patients.
After a few years, I decided to go to Med 5. I figured, if I’d already worked the units people complain about, I might as well do that one too. I liked it. I don’t get too worked up about low-acuity calls or the homeless population. I like being busy.
This last year, I’ve been on what I call my farewell tour—bouncing around to different stations, working with different crews. It’s been really nice to spend time with everyone again.
What am I going to miss? All of it. It’s a great job. The people, the camaraderie, the firehouse—you can’t really describe it to someone who hasn’t done it. It’s the same wherever you go. When I go back to Minnesota and see those guys, it’s the same thing. You wore the same uniform.
I’ve got two kids in college, and I live in my RV. I’m going to spend some time traveling—Texas, Tennessee, Florida—just seeing people and enjoying it. I’ll still be back through Omaha and up to Minnesota. It’s going to be hard to leave. It’s hard now, just thinking about it. But it’s the right time. All the signs point to it. I’ve loved every minute of it.”
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