PULSE Magazine | May 2019 Issue

Meet-A-Medic: Jon DeLong, Medic-Communications

reputation they (we) have. I also looked at it as giving back to the community that helped raise me and where I spent my whole life. I knew Austin as well as any Austinite could and felt that knowledge would be very beneficial to my line of work versus working an area that I had little background info on. What is your favorite part about working here at ATCEMS? It sounds cliché, but my favorite parts about working with ATCEMS really do include the people I work with (both patients and fellow medics) and how much the department invests in their employees with educational opportunities, public outreach opportunities, promotions, etc. If you had guests visiting Austin for the weekend, where is the first place you would take them? If I had guests visiting Austin, I’d have to take them to all the typical Austin places (of course), but first and foremost would be Magnolia Café. They have food that suits any hour of the day and it’s definitely an “Austin thing”.

I’m Jonathan DeLong. I come from a background with Search and Rescue as well as generalized Emergency Response. I started working for Austin- Travis County EMS in April of 2018. I stay busy keeping up with friends and family on my off time. You can usually find me at a shooting range or out relaxing with friends.

Where are you from originally and what brought you to Austin? I am from Austin! I guess you could say my parents brought me here.

What is your favorite taco joint in town? Juan in a Million

What inspired you to become a medic/What attracted you to this career choice? I always wanted to be in public service and always participated in Emergency Response organizations so being a medic just fell into place with me. Oddly enough it was not my first career choice. I originally wanted to be a firefighter through college and then move on to being a federal agent. When I didn’t get on with a fire department I decided to obtain my EMT-B certification in order to make myself more marketable. While going through my EMT class I just fell in love with being a medic and knew that was what I wanted to do as a career. How long have you been with ATCEMS and what motivated you to work here? I started with ATCEMS in April of 2018 but did not actually start working until May of 2018. I wanted to work for ATCEMS because of the great

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