14 Cherokee Firefighters Become Paramedics

From Cherokee FD: Fourteen county firefighters recently became paramedics after graduation ceremonies that were held last night at the Cherokee Hall Auditorium located in the Cherokee County Administrative Building.

Captain Scott Deal came forward to welcome family members and friends to the ceremony and later introduced Chaplain, Dana McPherson, to give the invocation. Randy Pierson, Paramedic Program Director, came to the podium to congratulate the new paramedics. Pierson stated that this group had went through 6,924 clinical hours of training and performed 993 pediatric assessments,1,826 adult assessments, 934 geriatric assessments, 514 chest pains and administered 1,062 medications, started 1,059 IVs and intubated 150 patients. EMS Chief, Danny West, also spoke about the huge changes that he has seen over the years with the department and that Cherokee County continues to be a leader in emergency medical field.

Cherokee County Fire Chief, Tim Prather, spoke to the crowd about a new award that had been established to be given to a member of each paramedic class for academic achievement that will be called the Star of Life Award. The first Star of Life Award was announced and presented by Randy Pierson to Paramedic, Adam Long. The 14 firefighters who graduated from the paramedic class were asked to come down and receive their certificate of completion. Receiving their paramedic certification were: Ryan Barker, James Brock, Cody Caviness, Joshua Germon, Kevin Hamilton, Ryan Hixson, Matthew Hutcherson, Isaiah Johnson, Justin Libby, Adam Long, Peter Meadows, Nathan Pelletier, Grace Robertson and Milton Zapeta. After the presentation of the certificates, Capt. Scott Deal returned to the podium and thanked everyone for coming and informed the new paramedics that their training and dedicated service to our citizens is why Cherokee County Fire & Emergency Services is one of the top 10 fire and EMS departments in the state and was also one of the top 100 in the nation. Congratulations to all of our new paramedics for all their hard work and a job well done.

Images via Cherokee FD