With sirens wailing and lights flashing, Centre LifeLink EMS ambulance 25G speeds west down College Avenue to answer its first call of the night, a 36-year-old man in respiratory distress.
"Now you can see what not to do," Todd Shook says, referring to the motorists that are haphazardly scrambling to the roadside to let the ambulance get by.
Shook is the night field supervisor, a trained emergency medical technician (EMT) and paramedic. Another Friday night of emergency calls has begun for him and his co-workers at LifeLink.
The ambulance pulls up to the man's house, and Shook and volunteer EMT Stephanie Larson pile out of the truck and head inside with their medical gear and supplies.
"Take a couple of deep breaths for me," Shook tells the man as he asks him a series of questions about his symptoms and medical history.
The man sits hunched over a counter, shaking and breathing heavily.
"I'm just really confused right now," the man says, leaning on the yellow- and black-speckled counter, unable to lift his head.
Larson and Shook help the man into a gurney and wheel him out to the ambulance. After securing the gurney, Shook sits in the back and continues talking to the man to gather more medical information and calm him down.
Larson hops behind the driver's wheel and soon the three are on the way to Mount Nittany Medical Center.
"It can get crazy at times," Shook said, noting that while his crew was responding to its first call at 7:30 p.m., Lifelink had to dispatch more trucks to respond to four more calls shortly thereafter.
When the two finish assisting the patient, Shook and Larson prepare for their next call while catching up with some friends working on other LifeLink trucks.
"Everybody knows everybody in EMS," Shook said. "It's really tight-knit."
Larry Eshelman, a Centre LifeLink EMT, also echoed his passion for the job.
"This is what we love," he said. "Nobody does it for the money."
Centre LifeLink has both paid employees and volunteers.
While Shook said he often gets alcohol-related emergency calls on weekends, his crew did not receive any during Friday night's 6 p.m. to midnight shift.
The break is soon over, as another call comes in shortly after the first. Shook and Larson are on the road again. They arrive at a nursing home to assist a 71-year-old woman with kidney failure.
Larson sits in the back of the ambulance with the patient, making her comfortable, gathering information and kindly joking with her.
"I'm going to buckle you in now because I don't want you running off from me even though you say you're one of the good ones," Larson said to the woman with a smile.
Being able to help others, such as the 71-year-old woman, is one of the aspects of EMS work that Larson said she enjoys.
"I like calls where you can actually make a difference," she said.
However, Larson said that not all patients are cooperative.
"When people are ignorant toward you it's just frustrating," she said.
Larson and Shook receive their third call around 10:30 p.m.
They race off to Sheetz, 1781 North Atherton St., in response to a 35-year-old woman's complaint of a swollen throat and difficulty swallowing.
Larson checks the woman's vitals but ultimately she refuses treatment because she said she was feeling better.
"I'm sorry," she keeps repeating to Larson and Shook.
"Don't be sorry," Shook tells the woman. "That's what we're here for."
