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Two women who witnessed the life-saving work of city EMTs first-hand during family emergencies recalled in touching detail Tuesday how the incidents inspired them to join the new class of first responders.
“I was taking care of a dying family member, and the EMTs and paramedics that showed up to my house were so good with her,” said Juliette Bosco, the 22-year-old valedictorian of Tuesday’s 119-strong FDNY graduate group after the commencement ceremony.
“They took such great care of her — they made her feel safe, and they made me feel safe,” she said. “I wanted to be like them. I wanted to be the best of the best. I want to work alongside New York City’s best.
“So I joined the FDNY, and now I’m here.”
Miriam Beltran, a 28-year-old fellow graduate, said her passion for emergency medical work stems from a 2017 accident in which her dad, Julio, had a citronella candle burst in his face as she sat beside him.
“His face was completely burned,” she said as she clutched a photo of her dad and 1-year-old daughter, Luna Silva, after the ceremony at the Christian Cultural Center in Brooklyn.
“And when the EMTs came — they were FDNY — they calmed me down, they calmed my mom down … [and] they kept him calm.
“He thought he was going to be blind. But they took really good care of him,” she said. “After that, I decided, ‘Why not try [being an EMT] and see if I like it?’
“And it turns out I love my job.”
The new grads will bolster the city’s EMT ranks just as the FDNY says it’s had trouble staffing and recruiting EMTs and paramedics.
The latest group of graduates trained for 16 weeks at the EMS Academy and learned everything from CPR to emergency childbirth — because you never know what will happen in the Big Apple.
“We know you have chosen this path because you are called to this work,” Fire Commissioner Robert Tucker told Tuesday’s crowd of graduates.
“You already know this is challenging, you already know this is rewarding. … You feel the push and the pull, the truth of those two realities on your best and worst days alike.
“You need only look at your uniforms and the patches on your sleeves to know you are the best and the greatest: You are part of the FDNY,” he said.
The FDNY noted last month in a mayor’s management report that response times have ticked up recently.
“Emergency Medical Services (EMS) faces a lack of resources in terms of emergency medical technicians and paramedics as well as a smaller pipeline of potential recruits,” the department said.
The FDNY and City Hall insist they’re addressing the issue and trying to knock response times back down.
But union head Oren Barzilay said the problem is not hard to understand.
“It’s simple math: You have high demand and low supply,” he said, adding that perennially low pay has pushed away recruits and vets alike.
“We’re one of the few unions left without a new contract,” he said. “People are going elsewhere for better pay.”
