Couple work as EMT team in Watsontown

By Wayne Laepple
The Daily Item

June 15, 2009 08:15 am

— WATSONTOWN — When Jason and Kathy Kling head off to work, they go together. In fact, they work together.
Both are emergency medical technicians, working the 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. shift for the Warrior Run Area Fire Department ambulance. They’ve been working as a team for six years.
“We take turns,” said Kathy. “One day one of us drives and the other one ‘techs’ — rides in the back with the patient. The next day we switch.”
“Except when it snows,” Jason chimed in. “She hates driving in the snow.”
The routine varies a bit from time to time, Jason noted. If the patient is intoxicated or belligerent, he takes over. If a child is the patient, Kathy’s the tech.
Jason was a volunteer with the Warrior Run Area Fire Department as a teenager, and after he graduated from high school, he went into the Army, where he trained as a medic. He’s still in the Army Reserve, one of just three flight medics in the state.
Kathy said she always was interested in medicine, and her mom worked at Evangelical Community Hospital in Lewisburg, so it was only natural that she’d be attracted to the field.
“There’s never a dull moment here,” she said. “I like having to make split-second decisions and have it be the right treatment. You’re constantly thinking, and you know when you get the dispatch how you’ll treat the situation.”
Jason nodded in agreement. “You’re on auto-pilot,” he said. “Your hands know what to do.”
When the couple arrives at the station, they go through certain routines at the beginning of their shift. Then they settle in and wait for the scanner to go off. Some nights, they’re busy throughout the shift, and other nights, nothing much happens.
“You have a lot of freedom,” said Kathy. “No one’s looking over your shoulder. You have procedures and protocols, and you just do what’s expected of you.”
Jason’s been on the job for 16 years, and Kathy has been at it for six, following the birth of their daughter, Laurynn.
Even when they aren’t on duty, they spend a lot of their time at the fire station. Both are cardiopulmonary resuscitation instructors, and Jason is an EMT instructor. Because he’s off during the day, Jason mows the grass and plows snow, and they both help organize the Turbotville and Watsontown firemen’s carnivals.
“I can’t imagine doing anything else,” said Kathy. “He’s got my back, and I’ve got his. We could probably run a call without ever talking to each other.”

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