Dougherty EMS director thrives on role of offering aid
Aug. 06--ALBANY -- Most people rarely think of ambulances. Even fewer think of communication systems, lifesaving equipment, the training of a paramedic, or response times -- at least until aid is needed.
"We work 24 hours a day, 365 days a year," said Greg Rowe, director of the Dougherty County Emergency Medical Service. "If it's Thanksgiving day, Christmas morning or New Year's Eve, whenever you need an ambulance, you get one."
Addressing members of the Albany Rotary Club on Thursday, Rowe said he entered the emergency rescue business in 1982, and has been "crazy about the job" ever since.
"I graduated from Albany High School in 1977," Rowe said, "but I didn't know what I wanted to do so I enrolled in college as a business major. My mother thought I ought to be in banking but I couldn't see myself wearing a coat and tie to work every day."
Despite his stated aversion to running into burning buildings, Rowe later joined the Albany Fire Department, he said, where an EMT patch on the shoulder of a first-aid trainer caught his eye. He found a training class at (then) Georgia Southwestern College and the rest is history.
"Every call is different," Rowe said. "For every car wreck, chest pain, fall or diabetic delivery, you show up at the scene and try to make a difference in someone's life. I'm crazy about it."
Rowe said he's often asked what his worst calls are like. For him, it's any situation where children are sick or injured.
"That wasn't true until I had children of my own," Rowe said. "That really changed things. Fortunately, most of the child abuse cases I've handled were before I became a father. I guess that's God's way of protecting me. The worst case, though, was a child who'd been run over by a bush hog (rotary mower). The picture in my mind and the screams of that child will never go away.
"The thing is, you work on a call that's so traumatic, and you're trying to deal with it. Then all of a sudden -- boom -- there's another call."
According to Rowe, the responsibility for emergency medical response was assumed by the county in 1972, but for years was primitive by today's standards. The first EMS station was housed in a former ice cream parlor on Flint Avenue, infested with bugs and mice. Rowe's entrance to the service 10 years later corresponded with a new station on the corner of Jefferson Street and 2nd Avenue.
"We had one ambulance at that station," Rowe said,"There was an office, a secretary and we did our own dispatch."
These days EMS boasts five stations with seven trucks and crews placed strategically around the county, including state-of-the-art equipment and training.
"SPLOST (Special Local Option Sales Tax) is vital for our operations," Rowe said. "Anybody who makes purchases in our county pays sales tax, and that pays for our facilities. I've had people come from Gainesville and Leon County, Fla, who can't believe what we have here."
Rowe said Dougherty County EMS has responded to more than 22,000 calls each year for the past decade.
Copyright 2015 - The Albany Herald, Ga.
