Eight students at Madison High School are enrolled in the EMT program. The program is a partnership between Northeast ISD, the UT Health Science Center, and the San Antonio Fire Department.
The curriculum requires each student spend three eight-hour shifts with San Antonio EMS and inside the University Hospital emergency department. Graciele Aguilar says she has always known she wanted to be in medicine.
“We get to help people and save lives and to give people a second chance and continue with their daily lives,” said Aguilar, a senior at Madison.
Last week Aguilar was in an ambulance headed to a home where a man was choking and in cardiac arrest. When they arrived, other family members had already started CPR on him. EMS, along with Aguilar, stepped in and within minutes the man had a pulse and was being taken to the hospital. Aguilar monitored the man’s oxygen intake the entire ride to the hospital, with the resuscitation bag mask.