College of the Canyons celebrated the 50th anniversary of its Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) program Thursday, honoring the second oldest program of its kind in Los Angeles County.

Since 1972, COC’s EMT program has trained more than 5,000 EMT students, with many going on to launch successful careers in firefighting, law enforcement, nursing, and other related fields.

When the program first started, EMT students were taught the basics: how to control bleeding, how to apply oxygen, and most importantly, drive fast, joked SB Tucker, EMT program director at the college.

Modern-day COC EMT students spend nearly 180 hours in the classroom in the skills lab over a single semester. Students pour over a textbook around 1600 pages long, covering everything from treating a heart attack or delivering a baby, all the way to knowing when to stop resuscitation efforts and inform a frightened family that a loved one has died, Tucker continued.

“As you can see, this is not an average college class, and our students are not average people,” Tucker said. “They’re entering a health care system that strains to provide care for a growing and aging population. They’re entering a career field that demands total devotion to the job. 100-hour workweeks are the norm. Sleep and food come rarely and at odd intervals. They’ll be paid very little for what they’re asked to do, and they’re rarely thanked. Our EMT students know all of this, and they’re doing it anyway.”

In addition to listening to the speakers, attendees could experience hands-on teaching demonstrations and learn about student career paths in hospital emergency rooms, ambulance training, local agencies, and military careers.

“For the past five decades, we have provided EMT training to thousands of students who have gone on to serve the residents of Southern California as EMTs, paramedics, firefighters, police officers, sheriff’s deputies, nurses and much more,” said Dr. Edel Alonso, member of the COC board of trustees. “In fact, if you call 911 in Santa Clarita today, there’s a good chance the men and women who come to help you have learned their skills in the COC program.”

Dr. Omar Torres, Assistant Superintendent and Chief Instructional Officer for COC, reminded guests of the success of the EMT program, as illustrated by an incident wherein a COC EMT student saved his uncle with skills he learned through the program.

On May 9, 2021 Jonathan Nasrallah was celebrating Mother’s Day with his family when he had to apply skills he had learned to save his uncle, who collapsed during the gathering.

Nasrallah, 21, did everything he had learned in his EMT classes up until that point. After checking his uncle’s pulse and placing his ear to his face to detect breath, he realized his uncle had gone into full cardiac arrest.

With his father’s help with ventilations, Nasrallah could do approximately 100 compressions per minute until paramedics arrived and took over.

“Thanks to Jonathan’s bravery and being able to competently apply the skills that he had learned here at our EMT program at College of the Canyons, he was able to save a loved one’s life,” Torres said. “Jonathan is just one example of how our program has trained thousands of students over the last five decades, who work as EMTs or go on to other fields and perform life-saving procedures each and every day, throughout our region, and our country.”

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