Jesse Scarantino

When I took my first WMA WFR course, I had no prior medical training, and had just experienced a period of friends / acquaintances having serious – sometimes life changing – accidents in the outdoors. I felt lucky I wasn’t there, because I had no idea what I would have done to help. I left the WFR course feeling empowered to make medical decisions while in the backcountry, and a fascination (obsession?!) with emergency medicine. I joined a local SAR team and began pursuing a career in EMS.

I now work as a paramedic for a rural EMS agency in Southwest Colorado. We operate with limited resources, sometimes removed from definitive care, and I still use the WFR core-concepts on the ambulance. The more I’ve learned about medicine, the more strongly I feel about the WMA WFR curriculum being a necessity for anyone who wants to be able to make informed medical decisions when help isn’t around the corner.