A passion for medicine leads the Puebla paramedic to help others

Despite risking his health due to the environment surrounding the COVID-19 cases and the lack of time left for social life, Jose Antonio Figueroa SosonagaA first-generation student, University of Health of the State of PueblaShe focuses all her energies on caring for the health of the people of Puebla.

The young man from Puebla is in his fifth year of medical school and has been a volunteer paramedic since he was 17, with the goal of supporting people who are going through tough times.

Currently, I am a rescue and first aid volunteer paramedic in Puebla and I am also studying a degree in medical surgery at Puebla State Health University. I volunteer. I don’t have a schedule, I come to offer my services whenever I can.”

In an interview with Millennium PueblaThe young paramedic stressed that he tries in his spare time to support residents who are going through difficult times such as accidents or that require transportation to hospitals.

“It was a very complicated task to be able to link the two activities, but little by little I was combining my itineraries like schools and came here as a volunteer. At the foundation, as a volunteer, I don’t have such a strict schedule, but I try to come on the days when it’s not I have a job at the university.He stressed that I try to come here to support my institution as much as possible.

Figueroa Sosunaga explained that, currently, he sleeps less than four hours per day, since most of the day he studies different topics from the profession of medical surgeon and performs different tasks and jobs.

Pandemic, complicated time before calling for support

From the COVID-19 pandemic, the residents’ calls for the foundation have increased Rescue and first aid. Even more complicated was the end of 2020 and the beginning of 2021, before the vaccine.

“Rescue and First Aid have had their work due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Unfortunately, November-December 2020 and January-February 2021 were the most difficult times for us because it was an outgoing call after call. Unfortunately, we were aware of how the pandemic situation happened in State of Puebla. That was when we had the most dangerous mutations and we didn’t get help from vaccines. He stressed that people were getting vaccinated little by little.

During the most complex period of the epidemic, the student from Puebla was not infected, but at the beginning of this year he tested positive: “We have protocols to be able to help these patients. I didn’t get sick during those periods when we were helping people. Yes, I did get sick after that. I had COVID-19 this year, but thank God it wasn’t serious because I already got my doses of the vaccine.” full”highlighted.

Attend the first emergency

Jose Antonio joined Puebla Rescue and First Aid as a volunteer when he was 17 years old and his first emergency 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 call us, they are prostrate patients and you have to help them. My first call was to a patient who was in a state of abandonment and, unfortunately, had days of not eating,” he explained. It’s hard to see this kind of situation, but it’s very common in Puebla.

Rescue and First Aid in 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 foundation has been in operation for 50 years, it was founded almost after the Mexican Red Cross, and then after the 2017 earthquake, the rescue and first aid organization signed an agreement with BUAP so that students who were going to drop out of high school would be trained and certified.”

Being a non-profit organization, Rescue and First Aid for Puebla operates from the donations that civil society can make, and the support it can receive is essential.“The Foundation does not charge any fees, we do not charge any fees, we do not charge medical assistance fees, so we have no income as such”It is to explain.

Inspiration to study medicine

Jose Antonio explained that the uncle who takes care of his family members was his inspiration to choose to study a profession as a medical surgeon: “I have an uncle who is a doctor, so he always took care of the whole family. One of my reasons was seeing that day in and day out, he was responsible for the health of both of us. So, as I got older, I fell in love with medicine (…) Everything was a process I was faking it bit by bit.”is detailed.

Medical study costs

For Puebla paramedics, medicine is one of the most complex professions because, apart from the economic costs, dedication is key, and in this light, parties must be left and family reunited to continue learning.

“Bachelor’s degree is complicated because you lose your social life as a person more than it’s expensive. You have to imagine yourself a little bit that it’s not going to be what it used to be, and you won’t be able to go out to parties as often. Sometimes, you’ll stop being with your family because You have to go study or you have to do this project for different issues,” he explained.

With regard to financial investment, The student from Puebla highlighted that higher costs occur at the beginning of a careeralthough books and medical equipment are an important expense.

For José Antonio Figueroa Sosonaga, the support of his family is necessary to study medicine, as it requires not only economic resources, but also various support schemes.