It\u2019s a little before 5 on a late June afternoon when Garrett McCarthy \u201913 climbs out of a Learjet 35 at Aurora Municipal Airport just outside Chicago.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s been up since dawn and traveled more than 2,300 miles at 500 miles per hour as a flight medic in the tight confines of the AeroCare Air Ambulance. Even the descent from 40,000 feet was fast\u2014the Lear still has frost on its wings.<\/p>\n
McCarthy is smiling.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was a pretty easy mission, actually,\u201d he explains. \u201cOur patient was a one-year-old boy from Colorado whose pulmonary artery had been obstructing his trachea, and the surgery to put in a tracheal splint is done at the University of Michigan. He was returning home to Denver with his mom after being only the 17th person to have this operation.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was watching his heart rate, respiration, making sure he was getting oxygen to his tissues. He was pretty relaxed. His mom said he hadn\u2019t ever breathed as easily he had this week, so that\u2019s great.\u201d<\/p>\n
Combining aviation and medical care has been McCarthy\u2019s goal since he was a boy, but it hasn’t been a straight\u00a0path.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy dad was an aviator, one of the first helicopter pilots for the Chicago Fire Department, and that was my dream. That\u2019s all I wanted to do. My dad\u2019s deal with me was, \u2018You can do whatever you want, as long as you go to college first.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cI looked at schools all over.\u201d McCarthy smiles. \u201cBut I didn\u2019t know what to study to get on at the Chicago Fire Department to fly helicopters.\u201d<\/p>\n
His dream faded after his dad died during McCarthy\u2019s senior year in high school.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat kind of changed everything\u2014it was a really tough time.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Wabash cross-country team appeared seemingly out of the blue.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was running cross-country in high school, and I got this long heartfelt card from the Wabash team, signed by all of them. Here I was, an 18-year-old who just lost his dad, wasn\u2019t really sure where I wanted to go, and I get this card in the mail. Seemed like good guys. There were no strings attached to it\u2014just saying \u2018Hey, we\u2019re thinking about you.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cI looked at that and thought, Hey this is where I need to be. These guys are my kind of people.\u201d<\/p>\n
McCarthy majored in psychology, focusing on the developmental aspect of neuroscience and working with Professor Karen Gunther and her research on color vision.<\/p>\n
\u201cI found my niche, and it kind of tied into my work.\u201d<\/p>\n
That work at first being his part-time gig as a Putnam County (IN) emergency medical technician, his way of keeping alive that dream of following his father\u2019s career path.<\/p>\n
New York City and the clothing design business was McCarthy\u2019s first stop after his Wabash Commencement, but soon he was back to his first love, joining the New York EMS, then at an EMS mentoring program at Dartmouth.<\/p>\n
Today he\u2019s a full-time member of the Chicago Fire Department and works for AeroCare on his days off.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do a lot of intensive care transfers here, and many of our patients are stroke patients, many have trauma\u2014my neuropsychology background adds depth to my understanding of it all.\u201d<\/p>\n
He\u2019s also studying to be a helicopter pilot, and hopes to be licensed in fixed-wing aircraft after that.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy passions are aviation and helping people, and this work brings them both together. Hopefully, one day, I\u2019ll be able to fly the aircraft or work in the back, wherever I\u2019m needed.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014Steve Charles<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The engines on the Learjet 35 Garrett McCarthy \u201913 travels in as a flight medic for AeroCare were originally made by Garrett Manufacturing.<\/p>\n
Coincidence?<\/p>\n
Not at all.<\/p>\n
Back in 1990, McCarthy\u2019s father was flying a Lear Jet when he and Garrett\u2019s mother were discussing names for their soon-to-be born son.<\/p>\n
He looked down at the instrument cluster and saw \u201cGarrett\u201d printed on one of the gauges.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd that\u2019s how I was named,\u201d McCarthy smiles. \u201cThis is a different plane, but it\u2019s near and dear to me\u2014it\u2019s the one I\u2019ve spent most of my hours in since I\u2019ve been a flight medic.”<\/p>\n
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