After Motorcycle Crash, EMT Overcomes Double Amputation to Become Paramedic

Noah Filer, the only double amputee paramedic in the state of Illinois, no longer makes plans. The last time he made a plan, Filer says, it seemed like God’s way of laughing at him.

In 2011, Filer’s plan was to enroll in paramedic courses and get a full-time position at the Rockford (IL) Fire Department.

Filer, who had worked as an EMT since about 2007, was just a few months of classes and 60 clinical hours away from completing his paramedic course on April 1, 2012. But little did he know the events of that day would drastically alter his plans.

Filer headed to a friend’s farm that afternoon to purchase a motorcycle. His friend offered to let him drive a dirt bike around before he bought the vehicle.

“I didn’t know how my balance was at the time,” Filer says. “He told me ‘this way, if you wipe out, you’re only going 20 to 30 mph on dirt instead of on the road.’”

After taking some laps at the farm, Filer and his friend took a few trips around the block on the motorcycle Filer was going to purchase. Then they took the motorcycle to the Durand Fire Department where Filer worked. Filer says they went to fill the motorcycle up with gas. The next thing he remembers, Filer woke up from a medically induced coma six weeks and two days later without an arm and a leg.

While riding the motorcycle, he had crossed the center line coming around a curve and crashed into a car head on. Filer sustained some serious head damage. His femur was broken mid-shaft, and his foot was bent into a U shape, among a host of other injuries.

 “When I woke up, I looked down at my arm and leg and thought ‘Well…where the hell are those?’”

Behind him was a tragic accident that changed the course of his life and ahead of him was four weeks of rehab, learning how to use a prosthetic leg and how to operate a prosthetic arm that uses a shoulder harness and shoulder/chest movements to operate. But Filer had something else on his mind.

John Underwood, EMS Medical Director of SwedishAmerican EMS System and teacher of Filer’s paramedic courses, says he was surprised when Filer reached out to him from the rehab facility.

Filer wanted to know what it would take to complete to his paramedic courses.

It would have been easy for Filer to look at his situation and put his paramedic dreams on the backburner or give up, but that didn’t cross his mind.

“There were no doubts,” Filer says. “I knew I had to finish it. I had so much time invested. I was determined.”

Although Underwood says Filer was an exceptional student in both the didactic and clinical portions of the class, he was understandably a little concerned at first.

“Anyone who spends that much time on a ventilator does not end up cognitively correct a majority of the time,” Underwood says.

To test where Filer was at mentally, Underwood and his EMS coordinator Richard Robinson allowed Filer to review class materials and retest him.

Filer passed with flying colors.

“A lot of his exams he actually did better after his accident than before his accident,” Underwood says.

There were some expected hurdles in restarting the paramedic course, as well as some unexpected ones.

The Chief of the Illinois Department of Public Health came to Underwood with concerns about Filer being able to complete the recommended physical requirements for a paramedic, but Underwood stood up for Filer and reasoned with the chief.

“They have recommendations that, in my opinion, are pretty ridiculous,” Underwood says. “One that stood out was being able to carry 125 pounds over rough terrain independently. Most of my staff couldn’t do that. I couldn’t just disqualify all my staff.”

Ultimately, the IDPH consented and Filer was allowed to complete the courses and his clinicals.

During his clinicals, Filer says he encountered some of his first difficulties using his prosthetics in a medical situation.

Putting on gloves was one challenge, as was using a standard tourniquet and laryngoscope. He went on the internet and found a tourniquet that came in two pieces and clicked together like a seatbelt to suit his needs. With the laryngoscope, the handle would slide through the hand on Filer’s prosthetic arm. SwedishAmerican provided him with a King’s Vision video laryngoscope so Filer could grip use the monitor to help his hand not slip off the handle.

In 2013, after completing clinicals and his classes, it was time for Filer to graduate. He had been looking forward to the day since he enrolled in the classes in 2011.

“It was a weight off my shoulders,” Filer says. “It was just such a huge relief.”

Filer is now the only double-amputee, fully-licensed paramedic in the state of Illinois.

Currently, Filer works as a clinical greeter at the SwedishAmerican Emergency Department.

Filer and the other paramedics help get patients into the department and help prioritize who will be seen in what order.

Filer says the job is challenging, but in much of the same ways it would be for a person with two arms and two legs. For example, carrying an overdose patient from a car into the emergency department is difficult for any provider.

More often than not, the challenge is more about being able to position his arms in a way that he can help lift the patient as opposed to being physically able to lift the patient. Despite his injuries, Filer still lifts weights and does cardio five days a week.

Filer isn’t sure what’s next in his career. Although he had once aspired to become a full-time paramedic with the Rockford Fire Department, he says he has other options now. Whichever direction he decides to take, he’ll surely be inspiring to others in the field, as he has been to Underwood.

“In everyday life, you’re going to have trials and tribulations,” Underwood says. “But you look at what Noah has been through, yours just seem pretty trivial.”