But when the first COVID-19 call came in, Boyd said it wasn’t what he expected.
“I thought it would be a person in severe respiratory distress, but it wasn’t,” he said.
“They just had the symptoms.”
In an interview at the Windber Volunteer Fire station, Boyd said Northern EMS has transported 10 positive COVID-19 cases. He was not permitted to say to which hospital or hospitals the patients were taken.
Information flowed quickly. Emails and a series of Zoom meetings helped frontline workers prepare. Still, COVID-19 came as a surprise, he said.
“I didn’t think I would be on the front lines of COVID-19 at all,” Boyd said. “I thought it would work its way around us and hit your major metropolitan or urban areas, but not here in Somerset County with a population of 77,000 people.”
Boyd has been in the EMS field for 22 years. He has been a paramedic for 16 years and employed by Northern EMS for five years. He also works for Somerset Ambulance and formerly for Hilltop EMS in Westmont.
Much has changed for first responders since COVID-19 surfaced. Paramedics and emergency medical technicians (EMTs) adapted new routines when starting each shift.
“We get screened at the door for temperature and have to answer the health survey,” he said. “We have our temperature checked twice during an eight-hour shift.”
The days when first responders simply climbed into the ambulance and raced to a call are gone.
“Everybody’s role has changed,” he said.
A specially equipped ambulance is used to transport suspected COVID-19 patients. First responders wear protective clothing, masks, gloves and face shields.
“The driver stays in the cab and I get in the back with the patient,” Boyd said. “Our cellphones go in bags. We use minimal equipment, unless we need to use advanced equipment.
“The driver stays in the cab when we get to the hospital. On the way back, I ride in the back with my suit on until we get to the (decontamination) area of the fire department. I have to remove my clothing, shower and change into a different uniform.”
With a 28-member staff of paramedics and EMTs, Northern EMS covers Paint, Ogle and Shade townships, Ambulance Manager Bob Haddad said.
Northern EMS also covers the boroughs of Windber, Paint, Scalp Level and Central City, along with Mine 42 in Adams Township, he said.
Although, local EMS units were prepared, the scale of the virus was surprising.
“I don’t think anybody initially had an expectation that it would come to this level,” Haddad said.
Boyd said he sat down with his wife, Elissa, and sons – 12-year-old Ayden and 9-year-old Maddox – to discuss how to prepare for COVID-19. Ellisa is an EMT, an EMS instructor and an education trainer for the state Department of Heath.
Boyd said he wasn’t worried.
“We talked about it and I was never really concerned,” he said.
“I felt we were taking all the precautions.
“We have lockers here for our uniforms. I go home in street clothes.”
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