When a victim’s life is on the line, emergency medical technician, senior Alex Sha is the first person to come out of the ambulance doors to register emergency; real or fake, Sha performed his duties to the fullest during SADD‘s Every Fifteen Minutes event on March 30.

Sha was responsible for the first of the two fake victims during EFM’s fake drunk driving accident. Sha arrived on the scene riding in an ambulance and immediately got straight to work. He worked efficiently and professionally as he quickly moved to save fake victim, junior Evan Hoppman’s life. “It was a unique experience for [Sha] working on someone who was a classmate of his,” said EMS Chief Morgan Kee.

Sha then left the scene in order to transfer the first victim to the Pediatric Trauma center. He was responsible for telling a trauma doctor what had happened to the patient by filling a patient transfer report. Unfortunately, Sha could do nothing more but watch the doctors attempt to unsuccessfully bring the first victim back to life. He then proceeded to clean up his materials and gear used; some were splattered with fake blood.

Though he was not directly involved in co-coordinating anything with the EFM event, Sha was assigned after his captain suggested that he could show the school everyone has the power to save a life and make a difference. “I think that the [EFM] demonstration is meaningful since it opened the eyes of many students on how dangerous drunk driving is,” said Sha.

After his friend had a seizure, Sha became an EMS in order to be fully prepared to help anyone in any immediate danger. Sha pushed himself through a summer crash course called EMT-B in order to be informed and ready to save lives as soon as possible.

Hours of long and arduous training went by until Sha became a licensed Maryland EMT since last August. Sha hopes to make a difference with his role as a fully trained and professional EMT, and works weekly shifts at the fire stations which last for 11 hours at a time. The EFM event was only the beginning. “Do not ruin your life [by] making a dumb mistake that could have been avoided,” said Sha.