LifeNet Paramedic Annie Norton has received the 2020 Star of Life Award for LifeNet, Inc.'s Texarkana Division.
Selected by her peers at LifeNet for the annual award, Norton was originally scheduled to go to Washington D.C. this month to represent LifeNet at the American Ambulance Association's annual Star of Life event.
While COVID-19 has put the event on-hold for this year, LifeNet is making plans to send Norton to represent them when the AAA hosts the next event.
Norton pursed a career in EMS because she wanted to make sure she could be able to take care of her family if a medical emergency happened.
"I didn't know anything about the medical field at the time, and it kind of scared me a little bit. I had a lot of questions, and the only way to get those questions answered was to go to school," she said. "Nursing school was not very conducive to also being able to work full-time. EMS had a lot more flexibility."
Norton started her EMS education at Texarkana College, where she went straight through EMT and paramedic school while working full-time.
With hindsight, she now recommends to new EMTs that they work on an ambulance for at least a year before starting paramedic school.
"There is only so much in EMS you can read about. The books will teach you what to look for, but experiencing it is an unpublished volume, and the only way to read that, is to live it," she said. "When you're on the street, the scenarios are endless. If you work for a year out in the field before you get your medic you'll be able to recognize some illnesses faster. When you see the different scenarios play out, it'll be easier to treat your patients."
Norton has more than a decade of experience but sees EMS as a "stepping stone."
She aspires to become an RN and later go to PA school.
As a paramedic, she has gone the extra mile to serve as a patient advocate.
In 2019, Norton responded to a homeless shelter to transport a patient with fever.
She discovered the patient had been seen in a local emergency department earlier and diagnosed with the flu.
After questing the resident and staff at the shelter, she discovered 25 of the 99 occupants at the shelter were experiencing flu-like symptoms.
Her quick thinking allowed LifeNet to notify the appropriate agencies of a potential flu outbreak at the shelter.
After a physician assessment, seven patients were hospitalized with the flu and another 19 were prescribed Tamiflu and isolated from the other occupants.
Norton is also known for ensuring every patient is treated the same.
"They (call an ambulance) because they are scared of something, and they don't have answers. They want you to give them the answers," she said. "I enjoy being able to be the person that explains things to folks and helps calm the fears that caused them to call us."
Norton enjoys responding to calls that are time sensitive, particularly strokes and trauma.
"Nobody in this field wants anyone ever to get hurt. We all care about humanity. That's why we do this," she said.
Cerebrovascular accident, stroke and trauma are very time sensitive emergencies, Norton said. "Unfortunately, with those, we can't fix the problem. We're given an opportunity to improve outcomes by identifying the problem, stabilizing, moving quickly, and getting to a specialist at the hospital safely."
She was nominated for this award by her peers and selected by a committee of former Stars of Life at LifeNet.
One of the testimonials written in her nominations said: "Annie is a perfect example of how EMS should be represented. She is an amazing medic, very compassionate. She also is 100% all about her EMS family. She would give any of us the shirt off her back if we were in need. She is a ray of light to be around, and you will smile while in her presence."
When Norton is not at work, you'll find her either cooking, painting, or cuddling up watching cartoons with her daughter. In May she got engaged to her fiancé, LifeNet EMT Bill Norton.