Garner drawn to EMS work

In the late 1960s as a teenager, Hugh Garner watched as his neighbor had to be transported by ambulance.

That neighbor, an elderly man whom Garner said was his "fishing buddy," had a heart condition, and there were several times when he had to be taken by ambulance.

Garner gravitated toward emergency services, and a few years later, he joined the field.

"Observing those times, I was impressed with the compassion they were showing to him and gave to him," Garner said.

Garner, a native of Lawrenceburg who had moved to Switzerland County during his high school years, said an advertisement appeared in a local newspaper looking for volunteers for an ambulance service.

He and one of his friends applied, which was to the volunteer seekers' surprise.

"I think they were expecting people a little older, but they were accepting that we were willing to volunteer," he said.

From Nov. 1971 to Feb. 1972, Garner and his friend took a Red Cross first aid class. Two months after completing that, Garner had his first run, a motor vehicle accident with a fatality.

"It didn't make me want to quit," he said of the difficult situation. "I thought it will get better than this."

After graduating from Switzerland County High School in 1972, he worked for the state highway department in the summer and volunteered with the ambulance service.

In September, he went to Vincennes University and worked for a private ambulance service while attending college.

Then in the fall of 1973, living in Vevay at the time, Garner enrolled in the Emergency Medical Technician Basic program through Ivy Tech Community College, which had an off-campus program at SCHS.

He got a job with Gans Funeral Home's ambulance service in Madison in late summer 1974. He did that for eight years before working with Med Care for a couple years and then a private ambulance service, Med Aid Services.

In 1985, he became an Emergency Medical Services primary instructor for the state. Three years later, he enrolled in the paramedic program at Bartholomew County Hospital.

Since 1991, Garner has worked for Jackson County EMS, and he's now the EMS education and quality assurance coordinator. He also teaches EMT Basic and paramedic classes at Ivy Tech in Madison.

"EMS is medicine and it's a part of the hospital system," he said. "Medicine is always changing, and I just wanted to change with the times and improve my skills and help others improve their skills as well."

While he's stationed at the EMS office in Seymour looking over ambulance run reports and doing administrative duties, Garner said he occasionally provides assistance to field personnel. The goal every time, he said, is to help people in their time of need.

"First and foremost, I love working in the field as a paramedic helping people," he said. "Many people say EMS personnel save lives. We don't save lives as consistently as we help people every day. If we have the opportunity to save a life while doing our job, that puts icing on the cake."

That goes back to the story of his fishing buddy.

"They weren't there to save his life," Garner said. "They were there to help him."

As an educator, Garner said he enjoys watching new people come into the system and helping them further their career. That's where it's important to learn and maintain basic skills, including interpersonal communication and critical thinking.

On about 10 different occasions, he has been a featured speaker during the state EMS conference, and he's also attended national conferences.

"I love to speak in front of groups of people so it all just kind of went hand-in-hand," he said. "You get a handle on what's going on in the nation with EMS, and you rub elbows with EMS professionals across the nation. There are roundtable forums where you get to see what's going on in other places and bring that back to Jackson County to help improve our system."

Garner said EMS has growing trends, and there are additional educational programs being developed. He'd like to see some of them, such as the Critical Care EMT Paramedic program, be available locally because they do many interhospital transfers of critical patients.

"Bringing that to Jackson County would enhance what we do," he said. "We have implemented many programs here over the years, but it just takes time and money to do that."

Garner is at the point in his 36-year career where he is at a satisfactory level.

"I don't necessarily have personal goals in mind in advancing myself," he said. "My personal goal is to help others advance and to become the best they can be in their EMS career. That gives me great pleasure."

He's also thankful to have had the opportunity to help people.

"I get a great deal of satisfaction when people that I have taken care of, I see them in public at a later time, and they thank me and thank the services for helping them in their time of need," he said.

Garner's peers recognized him for his years of service by nominating him in 2005 for the Indiana Paramedic of the Year award. He ended up winning the award at the annual EMS conference.

"I was stunned when they announced my name," he said. "I was also humbled. It caught me off-guard. It was a major honor."

He said he's enjoyed working in Jackson County, but he hasn't done the job alone.

"Jackson County EMS personnel, we work as a team," he said. "We strive to provide the best possible care for the community. An individual cannot do it by themselves, but a large group of individuals working as a team can make a very positive impact."

When not working in the EMS arena, he likes fishing, umpiring baseball games and officiating high school volleyball games. He's done the latter two for 28 years.

"I had the opportunity to work the high school baseball state finals twice, 2004 and 2008," he said. "I'm real proud of that."

Garner said a few years ago, his wife, Annabet, who is an instructor and medical assisting program coordinator at Ivy Tech in Madison, asked him what his legacy would be in EMS. He had never given it any thought until recently.

"What I want my EMS legacy to be is for people to know, if I have responded to them, they have received quality, compassionate care," he said, just like what was given to his fishing buddy.

"The second part is for anyone I've had the honor to teach, and for them to take away the fact that it's so important to treat people with compassion and keep up quality care by keeping up with their skills and maintaining a high standard of care."

And if those things are accomplished, he said, "Then I have been successful."