Drew Baird, a senior in finance, climbs into the back of a truck and scooches past the bright-yellow stretcher. This routine has become mundane for him, even though he has seen countless people struggle for their lives here. He sits and shuffles through bags and labels, stopping when he finds one he needs to read out to his partner.

Baird reads out a series of numbers to Charles Cheek, an alumnus.

As Baird reads different numbers from tags, Cheek scribbles them down on a piece of paper — that night’s inventory.

Baird, Cheek and the others in the building all have radios attached to their belts, but tonight the line stays dead except for a call to the fire department.

They go out to wave at the fire trucks as they go by, before heading back inside the EMS building.

On Call

According to Baird, they “sit around and watch” TV. However, at the beginning of their shift, before they get to watch TV, Baird and Cheek — partners for the night — check to make sure they have all the equipment and materials on the ambulance they might need for any call that evening.

“It is something we do at the beginning of every shift,” Baird said.

Just in one bag of medications, the variation is great — everything from strong heart medication to aspirin. Baird said aspirin can be “the most help for someone with a heart attack.”

In addition to the medications, they carry some exotic things on the truck, like anti-terrorism material.

“We carry gas masks, anecdotes to poison and chemical decontamination suits,” Cheek said. “The best prevention for us is preparation,” he said. However, he emphasized they are not trying to scare the public.

However, some of the things they would like to have on the truck just won’t fit, according to Baird because there isn’t enough room.

According to Baird, they are supposed to carry a cooler of cool fluids to be kept on the truck, but they are unable to do so.

With all of the things they have at their fingertips in an ambulance, “it’s basically an emergency room on wheels,” Baird said.

Everything is not always smooth sailing, however. Sometimes they have to call in the fire department if they are having difficulty getting the stretcher in the truck due to a person’s weight. According to Baird, the stretcher can hold up to 500 pounds.

However, Baird said the Apex EMS, where he works, should be getting a hydraulics stretcher soon that will lift up to 800 pounds by itself.

Everyone that rides along in an ambulance has to be certified at an EMT level — including the driver, according to Baird. There are three EMT levels — beginner, intermediate and paramedic.

To train drivers, Baird said they go to an empty parking lot where they set up cones and the drivers have to go through the course in a certain amount of time and only hit “so many cones.”

Baird started EMS training when he was in high school. His school provided a three-year program for medical science, where he got his first certification. When he entered the program, he wanted to be a doctor, but EMS showed him “medical care was not where [he] wanted to be.”

Baird is now a certified EMT-I but has to take classes every year to keep his certification up-to-date.

For his first call, Baird was with his friend Ryan Pennington, a senior in international politics. They answered a call about a one-month old who had stopped breathing in Gaston County.

“It was intense shit,” Pennington said.

Baird agreed and said the call was “pretty tough.”

Other than children, Baird said the hardest thing is when a “regular caller” dies. He said he develops a relationship, “almost a friendship,” with them. It’s hard “to watch someone die,” Baird said.

An overlook

Baird has had a plane since his junior year in college. He wanted to be a pilot after deciding not to be a doctor, but “there aren’t any jobs.”

He uses his plane to take aerial photographs. “I never know [which photographs will be good] because I have to fly the plane and take pictures at the same time,” he said.

Baird enjoys using his plane to travel, as well.

“My favorite thing to do on a pretty weekend is grab a group of friends and fly down to the beach for lunch or the weekend,” Baird said.

He also goes to visit friends in Jacksonville, Florida sometimes. Right now, he is “trying to get someone to pay [him] to take them to Nashville.”

One time, Baird’s mom called him to ask him to go to lunch, but he had to turn her down because he had flown to Charleston that morning. She got teary-eyed, according to Baird, because she is nervous when he flies, but she supports him working for the EMS.

Being true to school

“I thrive on stress,” Baird said.

On top of working for the EMS a few nights a week, Baird is taking 18 hours-all but one are 400-level.

“This has been the hardest semester,” he said. “I don’t really have any free time.”

One thing he does to relax is listen to music that “takes [him] down a notch or two.”

He likes to stay busy, though. According to Baird, a relaxing weekend would be “busy but doing something different.”

In addition to 18 hours, EMS keeps him busy since he is on the Board of Directors at the Apex EMS and in charge of a new personnel training program.

“I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t enjoy it,” Baird said.

Cheek, who got his EMT-P certification while at NCSU, agrees.

“Once you get it in you’re blood, it’s hard to get out,” he said.

Baird hopes to continue to walk his size 11 feet to the EMS and climb into ambulances for a while, even if it is on the side.

“I am a firm believer that if you have the ability to help somebody, you should,” Baird said.