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Paramedic Training Pipeline: Zero to Hero with Andrea, Tyler & Mitchell

What really happens when someone goes from citizen to paramedic in the fastest pathway EMS offers? In this raw, funny, and unexpectedly emotional episode, three medics who took the accelerated “zero to hero” pipeline sit down to talk about what the classroom didn’t teach them, what the field demanded of them, and what it actually feels like to learn EMS in real time.

Andrea Marquez, Tyler George, and Mitchell Lamb come from completely different backgrounds — a seasoned EMT who worked through school, a former filmmaker turned medic, and a Georgia adrenaline-junkie who jumped straight from EMT class to paramedic certification. But each of them hit the field with the same challenge: be the medic your patch says you are… even if your knees are shaking.

They share the calls that shaped them early in their careers — a teenage overdose, a seven-day-old infant who suddenly stopped breathing, a traumatic fall that permanently changed one medic’s fear of heights — and the moments when they realized the job is messier, louder, and far more human than anything in a textbook.

And yes… the story of Butter Man — an early-morning psych call involving a naked, fully greased individual, a confused restaurant staff, and a Police wrestling match that defies physics, dignity, and imagination.

The conversation goes deeper into:

• The gaps between school training and field reality
• How it feels when everyone on scene suddenly looks to you — the new medic — for answers
• The moment when confidence finally “clicks”
• Why CPAP humbles every new paramedic
• Navigating dangerous advice from another provider
• Whether zero-to-hero produces competent medics or unnecessary risk
• And the qualities that truly determine whether someone will make it in this field

It’s honest. It’s chaotic. It’s unfiltered EMS.

And it captures exactly what it takes to survive the pipeline — and grow into the medic you’re supposed to become.

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