June 2019
Paramedic’s recent retirement is rare By Robin Fish rfish@parkrapidsenterprise.com
Ambulance driver Bucky Johnson, left, reminisces with Brent Haynes about all the changes in emergency medical protocols since they both started working at what was then Jones Ambulance in 1995. (Robin Fish/Enterprise)
We have one guy who became a choo-choo driver, and another who became a butcher, and another one who became a DJ. They walked away and left their cards behind. So yes, the rarity of retirement is, around here, one. Me.
‘Regular old paramedic’
Haynes got his start as a medical technician in 1992 as he came off 10 years of active duty in the Air Force and joined the Reserves. “There was literally no job there,” he said. “So, I picked out the longest school, which was Air Medical Evac, 14 months.” Originally from southern California, Haynes always dreamed of living in the Park Rapids area, where his mother was from; his grandfather had an A-frame cabin on the Crow Wing River. So, upon completing tech school, he moved here and joined Hubbard First Response – his first civilian position. He met his wife, Carla, here, and she also became an EMT. “That’s where we all got our start,” said Haynes, indicating Johnson, who is now president of Hubbard First Response. “I got
BRENT HAYNES
Haynes trained as an Air Medical Evac medical technician in the U.S. Air Force Reserve before joining what is now North Memorial Ambulance Service in 1995. (Submitted photo)
him into the First Response, and he got me into the ambulance garage.” During his 14 years in the Air Force Reserves, Haynes deployed as a medical technician in 2001 to Germany in support of Bosnia and Afghanistan, had boots on the ground in Iraq in 2003 and visited many other places before retiring in 2007.
At the same time, he was supervisor of the Park Rapids ambulance base from 2002 to 2015, before he stepped down and “just became a regular old paramedic.” Haynes estimated that he has been on approximately 10,000 calls with the ambulance service, at a rate of 300 to 400 a year. He reckoned that in 10 percent of those calls, “we do an interven-
tion of some sort that makes a difference in (the patient’s) outcome. Maybe one out of 10 of those – so, 1 percent – is where we’re really busting our butt and trying to save a life.” Explaining in part why most EMTs don’t make it to retirement, Haynes noted, “We all have our horror stories. Most of the time, we really don’t want to relive them because those are not great memories for us.”
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When paramedic Brent Haynes retired from North Memorial Ambulance Service at the end of April, it was a first for the Park Rapids ambulance base. “Brent’s the first person who’s retired from EMS that I know of,” said ambulance driver Bucky Johnson, who started working there within about four months of Haynes in 1995, when it was still Jones Ambulance. North Memorial Health bought the service in 2002. During a 72-hour duty shift in early April, Haynes discussed his milestone with Johnson and fellow paramedic Dwayne Mattson. “Nobody retires from this job,” said Johnson, citing a recent magazine article that put the average burnout rate in emergency medical service at about seven years. “It’s very rare for someone in EMS to retire after 20 years of service,” said Mattson. “They quit and go do something else,” Haynes agreed. “Nursing or something,” said Johnson. “We have one guy who became a choo-choo driver, and another who became a butcher, and another one who became a DJ,” said Haynes. “They walked away and left their cards behind. So yes, the rarity of retirement is, around here, one. Me.”