When Sahaana Rangaraj joined Montgomery EMS as a cadet in 10th grade, she was primarily looking for a way to experience medicine firsthand. What Rangaraj found was something much broader: a chance to serve her community, learn from people she might never otherwise meet, and develop skills that continue to shape her life.
“I didn’t really understand how much of an impact Montgomery EMS had on the community when I first joined,” Rangaraj recalls. “I just wanted to experience medicine in the best way I could. But I learned that every patient influences my life in some way. Those are experiences I carry with me.”
One of her most memorable calls was also her first. While transporting a patient who had suffered a mini-stroke, Rangaraj was surprised when the woman’s immediate concern was not the ambulance ride, but her lipstick.
“She looked at me and said, ‘Do you have my lipstick?’ Then she told me she wasn’t leaving without it,” Rangaraj remembers with a laugh. The moment stuck with her because it was a reminder that behind every medical call is simply a person going through an unexpected and often frightening moment.
“I learned that every patient influences my life in some way. Those are experiences I carry with me.”
Other calls have been far more difficult, including her first experience with a patient who had died before the crew arrived. Those experiences, Rangaraj says, made the responsibility of being an EMT very real.
EMS has also taught her lessons that extend well beyond medicine. “I learned to listen a lot more than I talk,” Rangaraj says. “You have to really listen to someone, absorb what they are saying, and then respond.” She also credits EMS with teaching her empathy, quick decision-making, and how to work effectively as part of a team.
Now a student at Boston University, Rangaraj continues to ride with Montgomery EMS whenever she is home during school breaks. Her EMS experience has helped her pursue hospital and research opportunities in Boston, and she hopes eventually to attend medical school and become a physician, perhaps a surgeon.
For Rangaraj, what began as an interest in medicine has become something more: an education in people, service, teamwork, and life.
