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The FDNY welcomed 59 paramedics into the department’s ranks June 30 following their graduation from the EMS academy after nine-and-a-half months of clinical internships and training in hospitals and in the field. The new first responders join a beleaguered staff of EMTs and paramedics who have been swamped with overwhelming numbers of 911 calls in recent weeks.
“A wise paramedic once said, ‘In order to succeed in this class one has to have the will to learn and a cautious mind,’” Zhangkai Lin, the class's valedictorian said in a statement posted on the department’s social media pages. “The program is over but learning, improving and proving our worth is a lifelong endeavor.”
Michael Fields, the FDNY’s chief of EMS Operations, told the graduates that they “have demonstrated unflinching dedication and selflessness.” He told them they “have chosen a career that demands them to put the needs of others ahead of their own, to rush into dangerous and hazardous circumstances without fear and deliver life-saving treatment under pressure, when every second matters.”
The paramedics followed by a week a class of 156 EMTs who graduated from the academy.
Duncan Freeman
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