Despite risking his health due to the environment of covid-19 cases and having little time left for social life, Jose Antonio Figueroa Susunagastudent of the first generation of the Health University of the State of Pueblafocuses all its energies on caring for the health of the people of Puebla.
The young man from Puebla is in the fifth semester of his Medical Surgeon degree and has been a volunteer paramedic since he was 17 years old, with the aim of supporting people who are going through difficult times.
“Currently, I am a volunteer paramedic in Rescue and First Aid of Puebla and, also, I am studying a degree in Medical Surgeon at the University of Health of the State of Puebla. I am volunteering. I don’t have a schedule, I come to offer my services whenever I can”, he pointed out.
In an interview for MILLENNIUM Pueblathe young paramedic stressed that, in his free time, he tries to support the population that is going through difficult times such as an accident or that requires a transfer to hospitals.
“It has been a very complicated task to be able to relate the two activities, but little by little I have been combining my itineraries such as schools and coming here as a volunteer. At the institution, as I am a volunteer, I do not have such a strict schedule, but I try to come on the days when I do not have work at the university. I try to come here to support my institution as much as possible”, he stressed.
Figueroa Susunaga explained that, currently, he sleeps less than four hours a day, since most of the day he studies different subjects of the Medical Surgeon career and does different tasks and jobs.
Pandemic, complicated time before demand for support
From the covid-19 pandemic, the calls by the population increased for the institution Rescue and First Aid. The most complicated was experienced at the end of 2020 and at the beginning of 2021, before the vaccine.
“Rescue and First Aid had work due to the covid-19 pandemic. Unfortunately, the period November-December 2020 and January-February 2021 were the most difficult times for us because it was outgoing call after call. Unfortunately, we were realizing how the pandemic situation was experienced in the state of Puebla. That was when we had the most serious spikes and we didn’t have the help of vaccines. Little by little, people were vaccinated”, he stressed.
During the most complicated periods of the pandemic, the student from Puebla was not infected, but at the beginning of this year he tested positive: “We have protocols to be able to assist these patients. I didn’t get sick during those periods when we were helping people. Yes, I got sick afterwards. This year, I got sick with covid-19, but thank God it was not so serious because I already had my doses of the full vaccine “he highlighted.
The first emergency attended
José Antonio entered the Puebla Rescue and First Aid institution as a volunteer when he was 17 years old and his first emergency attended was that of an abandoned patient who had gone several days without eating.
“Unfortunately, what comes to us the most every day are sick patients; So, every time they make a call to us, they are patients who are prostrate and you have to help them. My first call was a patient who was in abandonment and, unfortunately, had days of not having consumed food. It is difficult to see this type of situation, but it is something very frequent in Puebla”, she highlighted.
Rescue and First Aid of Puebla, an institution with 50 years of history, attends accidents, emergencies and medical emergencies free of charge 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
“The institution has been working for 50 years, it was almost founded after the Mexican Red Cross, then, after the 2017 earthquake, Rescue and First Aid signed an agreement with the BUAP so that students who were going to leave high school were trained and certified,” he added.
Being a non-profit institution, Rescue and First Aid of Puebla operates from donations that civil society can make, for which the support it can receive is essential.“The institution does not charge, we do not charge anything, we do not charge medical assistance, so we do not have an income as such”he explained.
An uncle, the inspiration to study Medicine
José Antonio explained that an uncle who takes care of the members of his family was his inspiration to choose to study the career of Medical Surgeon: “I have an uncle who is a doctor, so he has always cared for the whole family. One of my impulses has been to see that day by day, he was in charge of the health of all of us. So, as I grew older, I fell more in love with medicine (…) Everything has been a process that I have been forging little by little”he detailed.
The costs to study Medicine
For the paramedic from Puebla, Medicine is one of the most complex careers because, apart from the economic costs, dedication is fundamental and, given this, parties and family reunions must be left to continue learning.
“The bachelor’s degree is complex because, more than being expensive, you lose your social life as a person. You must mentalize yourself a little that it will no longer be the same as before, you will no longer be able to go out to parties as often. Sometimes, you are going to stop being with your family because you have to go to study or you have to do that project of various issues, ”he explained.
As regards financial investment, the student from Puebla highlighted that the highest costs occur at the beginning of the careeralthough books and medical equipment represent important expenses.
For José Antonio Figueroa Susunaga, the support of his family is essential to study Medicine, since not only economic resources are required, but also different support schemes.
“My family is a great support, a great boost to be able to be here. I think if I hadn’t had their help, I would be working somewhere else,” she concluded.
AFM