Post 53 is an adult-supervised EMS organization staffed by 62 students, including 29 athletes, from Darien (Conn.) High. It is the only student-run EMS organization in the nation.
Student president and track and field runner Arthur Cassidy (left), cruise officer and cross country and track runner Alex Ostberg (center) and twin brother, student vice president of EMS training and swimmer Nicolai Ostberg (right) during their on-call shift. Credit: David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports
The small black pager clipped to the right side of Alex Ostberg’s khakis remained silent throughout a recent Friday. He strolled the hall inside Darien (Conn.) High carrying a large black backpack, which looked heavy enough to nearly tip over the 5-foot-8, 120-pound teen.
He politely thanked a couple of people who congratulated him as he walked by. Ostberg, a senior, had returned days earlier from the Foot Locker Cross Country Championship finals in San Diego, where he finished ninth nationally among boys prep runners in 15:22, besting his 11th-place time last year by nine seconds.
“I ran the best race I could have,” Ostberg says. “I can’t complain about that.”
His grin, almost bashful, bore no sign of exhaustion — not after having flown cross-country and competed with an acute sinus infection and not from resuming his duties as an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT).
Ostberg, 17, became an EMT two years ago, inspired by friends who were involved with Post 53, an adult-supervised EMS organization staffed by 62 students, including 29 athletes, from Darien High. It is the only student-run EMS organization in the nation.
Former Darien resident Bud Doble founded Post 53 in 1970 as a way to give teens a first-hand opportunity to learn about the dangers of alcohol and drugs. The organization started as a first aid tent set up in a park in Darien on Friday nights. The first ambulance was a converted telephone repair truck. These days, volunteers ride in a 5.3-ton ambulance that costs $150,000 unequipped.
“Adults are here to guide. The students are here to lead. It’s a wonderful distinction. It really makes it ours.” -Nicolai Ostberg
Had Ostberg’s pager vibrated, he was prepared to leave at any moment — whether he was in class, at lunch, at practice, anywhere — and dart to an ambulance parked outside the school, where a Post 53 student driver also would have dropped whatever he was doing to meet him and go to the organization’s headquarters, located about a mile and half away.
Ostberg wears the pager up to four times a week. He’ll clip it to his fingers during practices, making it slightly less awkward to run compared to it being attached to his shorts. He practices for about three hours after school in addition to volunteering up to 70 hours a week.
“I don’t have many free moments to slack off,” Ostberg says. “We have a lot of great members who give everything to this organization. I want to be as involved as possible considering my schedule.”
He said his four-year involvement with Post 53 is preparing him well for the demands of college. He’ll run for Stanford next fall and is undecided on what he wants to study.
Ostberg has already experienced a taste of that independence. He’s away from home two nights a week, when he sleeps at Post 53, appropriately described as a “cozy house.”
“The kids run the scene,” said Jim Concannon, an Advanced Emergency Medical Technician (AEMT) and one of 45 adult supervisors at Post 53.
POST 53 HEADQUARTERS
That scene inside the post includes a living room with four tan coaches and a 55-inch flat screen, which volunteers had gathered around to watch Ostberg’s Foot Locker race via a video stream. The deluxe kitchen couldn’t be more teen-friendly with a fully stocked refrigerator with “everything a mother would want their child to have,” sophomore volunteer Carl Hunter said, laughing.
Chocolate fudge and Reddi Whip cans were sandwiched between jars of spaghetti sauce, hummus and salsa, while fruit snacks, vanilla wafers and boxes of cereal packed cupboards. Each week, two sophomore volunteers are assigned to refresh the supplies, which also include fresh fruit and gallons of milk. Per month, they generally spend double the $900 monthly budget. Post 53 is funded by private donations and also through three fundraisers annually.
The youthfulness of the headquarters is evident in the two dorm-like sleeping quarters, featuring six twin-size beds in each room, one designated for the boys, the other for the girls.
But markings of teenage existence stop with the junk food and bunk beds.
These high school volunteers are serious and committed in their roles, starting with the freshmen who wash sheets and remake the beds daily as part of the 90 days of cleaning for their “initiation.” They also do dishes, scrub the bathrooms and vacuum.
Ostberg, a senior, recently competed at the Foot Locker Cross Country Championship finals in San Diego, where he finished ninth nationally among boys prep runners in 15:22. He then returned to Darien, where he resumed his duties as an EMT. Credit: David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports
“We emphasize professionalism because when a patient sees a teenager show up, if you don’t look professional, that person isn’t going to have your trust,” Ostberg says.
Senior Arthur Cassidy, who is president of Post 53, explained a tiered system for the volunteers beyond their tasks around the post. Freshmen take a first aid class before they can officially volunteer and transition to learning about the equipment used in an ambulance. They mainly observe and absorb.
As sophomores, volunteers take a five-month EMT class, held twice a week for three hours each session. After passing the state exam to become certified, they transition to checking basic vitals on patients — heart rate, blood pressure, temperature, respiration rate, skin temperature and pupils.
They can also administer oxygen, check blood glucose levels for diabetic patients and provide oral glucose — always in the company of a Post 53 adult EMT supervisor. After a year, volunteers are eligible for driver training and to run the three ambulances.
“Adults are here to guide. The students are here to lead. It’s a wonderful distinction. It really makes it ours,” says Ostberg’s fraternal twin, Nicolai, a senior swimmer who became certified to drive an ambulance this year.
Three crews of students staff one of three ambulances 24 hours a day year-round. Post 53 encompasses first-, second- and third-response shifts.
- First response is a 24-hour shift; a four-person crew remains at Post 53 headquarters for the entire period.
- The second-response shift, also a four-person crew, handles a three-day shift, either Wednesday thru Saturday or Saturday thru Wednesday. Volunteers wear a pager for the entire shift, and if an individual receives a call, he/she reports to headquarters, gets in uniform and serves as a backup.
- Third response, a 24-hour shift that can span three consecutive days, is a two-person crew and operates similarly.
Post 53 generally receives two types of calls: trauma such as a broken arm or someone falling and medical such as chest or abdominal pains. Medicals calls require dispatching a paramedic from neighboring Stamford, about four minutes from headquarters.
The nature of the calls is wide-ranging. Cassidy and Ostberg were together on a shift once when they were dispatched for a heroin overdose. After police addressed the scene, Cassidy and Ostberg brought the unconscious victim into the ambulance, began airway management and provided oxygen. A paramedic administered Narcan, an opiate antidote, and the patient became conscious.
Cassidy says calls involving drunk drivers or drugs are always eye-opening.
They’ve also been dispatched for car accidents. Cassidy says it’s sometimes surprising how calm he feels during such instances.
“You’re not thinking about your emotions,” he says. “When you’re in the ambulance, you see it as job.”
He and Ostberg remembered getting called at 2 a.m. on a school night for a fire standby — they served as a support unit for fire fighters for three hours. After two hours of sleep, they went to school and then practice. Ostberg says such instances are rare, but nonetheless, volunteers are prepared.
Student volunteers take a five-month EMT class to become certified to check basic vitals on patients — heart rate, blood pressure, temperature, respiration rate, skin temperature and pupils. They can also administer oxygen, check blood glucose levels for diabetic patients and provide oral glucose — always in the company of a Post 53 adult EMT supervisor. Credit: David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports
“Their dedication is crazy,” says Connor Fitzpatrick, a Post 53 adult advisor and AEMT. “It’s amazing what these kids do. We’re always impressed.”
Adds Cassidy, “Being involved allows me to see that I’m capable of handling the same responsibility as an adult and can see firsthand that teenagers are perfectly capable of performing a job with professionalism and maturity.”
A BALANCING ACT
That the athletes must juggle their sports, schoolwork and volunteering adds a slightly complicating factor. When they’re on a shift, there’s always potential to get called in the middle of practice. Ostberg recalls being four reps into 10 400-meter hill repeats when his pager went off. He had to make up the rest of the workout after finishing the call, which averages an hour each time.
“It’s tough, but you learn to deal with it,” Cassidy says of the expected interruptions.
Like Ostberg, Cassidy says he doesn’t have a hard time balancing the schedule and staying on top of schoolwork. As with other student volunteers, they often study in one of the offices at Post 53. Grades are a priority for everyone. Students are urged to request off duty when they have a test. Nicolai says he forgot one time and was dispatched in the middle of solving a calculus problem. He had to make up the test the following day.
“It’s amazing what these kids do. We’re always impressed.”-Connor Fitzpatrick
Steve Coppock, a math teacher at Darien, says that while it can sometimes be distracting when a pager goes off and a student leaves in the middle of class, he understands the important work the students are involved in.
“All the teachers and administration know that Post 53 is very important,” he says. “What these young men and women do is pretty amazing. It offers them a great opportunity to see what life is like in the real world.”
Nicolai, who volunteers about 400 hours a month, says he’s also received calls during a date and at swim practice — he keeps his pager in a plastic bag and checks it throughout the workout.
But he looks forward to every call because he views it as a way to impact the community. Nicolai says the responsibility he feels when dispatched to help a victim in cardiac arrest or for a diabetic emergency, for instance, is fulfilling in a way that can’t fully be expressed in words.
Said Nicolai, “Every call is an opportunity to really make a difference in someone’s life.”