Thank you, Gordon.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
It’s not every day we get to write a story about someone who has given so many years of his life to serving his community – Wednesday was one of those days.
Gordon Garlick finished his last shift with the NSW Ambulance service on Wednesday after 40 years as a paramedic.
He put away his phone (saying that was one aspect of the job he wouldn’t miss) and retired from the job after 20 years serving the Dubbo community, and before that working for the Bathurst community.
It’s a tireless and selfless job, but one Gordon has said he has enjoyed.
Paramedics are the people you never want to encounter because they are only ever called at the worst of times, but it’s also one of the career paths that some people take that you want to be thankful for each and every day.
- GOT A STORY TO TELL? We’re all ears – reach the community via the Daily Liberal.
It is a job that sits right alongside police, doctors, nurses and many others.
Paramedics, along with other emergency services, encounter moments in their day to day job that many of us would never want, or hope to ever see in our lives.
And they do it with a continued compassion and professionalism that we admire.
Talking to the Daily Liberal as he was recognised for his many years of service Gordon said the team he had worked with made it all the better in the daily situations they faced together.
Gordon said he’d miss the cooperation and the teamwork while the focusing on the primary job – helping the patient who needed them in that instant.
Gordon said things had changed a little in the past 40 years, and he has seen the developments with the biggest one moving from a paper to a computerised system.
But the one thing that has remained the same is the dedication of the staff when they attend an incident.
For Gordon every day was constant yet different.
“Being a paramedic is very constant, you come across some work that’s not particularly good to see, being a paramedic, you’ve just got to get in there, the main focus is helping the patient and being with them in the transport experience.”
After giving 20 years of his career to the Dubbo community, and 40 years in total to the people of NSW, we wish Gordon well in his retirement.
We hope he enjoys his days of travel away from the phone.