Headline: Life of a Firefighter/EMT During the Opioid Epidemic

Family, Brotherhood, mental/physical health

Shaun Linker is a firefighter/EMT for Pleasure Ridge Park fire department in Louisville,

Kentucky. His daily work shift consist of late nights, a lot of coffee, riding in a fire truck with the

sirens blaring and spending 24-hours away from his family in order to insure the safety of other

people's lives.

Linker, 38, has been on the fire department for 12 years. His duties include, making fire

runs whether it is in a home, building, or a burning vehicle, and also administering Naloxone

inside someone who has overdosed.

Along with the job there comes stress both physically and mentally, with him and his

family, and his fellow fire brothers.

“There was a lot of worrying in the beginning, absolutely,” said Sarah Linker, wife of

Shaun Linker, “but now it’s our normal.”

Although Linker’s family has gotten used to the process of him being gone for 24 hours,

him coming home can also be a process.

“It’s more about gauging him. Sometimes he wants to talk about it, which is great,” said

Sara “or it’s, he goes and fiddles in the garage and that’s when I know he just needs time to

himself to decompress.”

Drinking at one time became Linkers therapy resulting in his personal life becoming a bit

of a struggle.

“There was a point in time I drank a lot. That obviously was tearing things apart all the

way around the spectrum.” said Linker

 Linker has been sober for six years now, and has found a new therapy in the gym, and

instead of him telling his family the day he went through, he listens to his wife and two kids

about how their day was and what is new in their life.

He said he likes to catch up on the things he missed while not allowing his job to

superseed his family.

Even though he tells his family and friends the things he sees on the job, and the things

he’s been through while he is at work, sometimes the thought of those things happening turns

people away from wanting to hear what he goes through.

“A friend of mine was curious one day and asked what was the worst thing that I’ve

seen,” said Linker “I started in on a story and he stopped me mid story and told me he didn’t

want to me to tell him anymore because he didn’t want that kind of evil in his head.”

Linker feels as if he should keep certain things away from his family because of the

things he sees on the job.

“There’s no reason for me to come home daily and dump that kind of evil in their heads,”

said Linker “all that’s going to do is induce more worry.”

Although Linker does talk to his family about his excitement while doing fire runs, his

feelings toward the opioid problem is different.

“At this point it’s more of a frustration and a disgust,” said Linker “most of the runs I

make are in Pleasure Ridge Park, where I live, so I live and work with these people.”

Linker lives so close to these people that he distributes Naloxone to, that he spotted a

young lady he distributed the life saving drug to in a local grocery store.
 “I see this young lady purchasing her groceries with a EBT card,” said Linker “so that

socioeconomic dynamic has created in my head is that, I just saved your life and I’m pretty sure

that drug dealers don’t take EBT.” “So you’re buying drugs with cash but yet you’re using a free

service to buy groceries. That is frustrating when you see someone like that taking advantage of

the system; to see someone do such damage to their own existence.”

With this job, Linker goes on these kind of runs so often that it is common for him to go

resuscitate that same person multiple times in one shift.

“I have had to resuscitate one young lady at least six times, in the last year.”

Dealing with daily stress of his job along with his family isn’t the only baggage that

comes with his duties. Having time, and scheduling what days he has with his extended family

during the holidays is something that takes a bit of a tole with these relationships.

“I think our parents felt more sympathy for me at that point, just because he’s always

gone,” said Sara “and I have two little ones, and it’s Christmas day and he’s not here, or it’s

Thanksgiving and he’s on shift.”

When Linker isn’t able to spend time with his family, his brothers at rescue 88, are the

ones that he gets to bond with.

“I mostly see joy and happiness, but I have seen him upset and angry,” said Robert

Seadler, firefighter/EMT, “that comes with the job. You see emotions from everybody.”

The three men, Linker, Seadler and Captain David Mattingly, are so close that they

consider themselves as a brotherhood.

Since they have worked with Linker for the past 12 years, they have seen him go from a

happy go lucky guy, to being upset wishing he could do more for the people he tends to.
 “It’s a stern look you see on his face,” said Seadler “it takes him a little bit. He’s very

chill and controls his emotions very well, but you can tell that they’re changing gradually.”

Something that upsets Linker mostly is that the possession of Heroin or other opioids is

being decriminalized.

The thought of someone not getting a citation or a ticket after overdosing frustrates

Linker along with Seader and Mattingly.

“If they can answer a couple questions and prove that they are of sound mind and body,

they can sign a refusal and there is nothing that is done.” said Linker

Captain Mattingly shares the same frustration. “This woman tried to enroll in treatment,

but because she tested negative for Heroin; they wouldn’t offer any assistance.” If you’re

denying people help because they don’t have Heroin in their system you’re pretty much telling

them to go put it in their system just so they can receive help.”

Mental health, trauma, and stress has become a common theme among firefighters and

emergency personnel throughout the United States. A study conducted by Douglas M. Wiegan,

PhD and Sophia Chiu, MD, MPH in 2017, found that 55% of firefighters/EMT reported some

amount of trauma responding to a call involving an opioid overdose, another 55% on more than

one overdose in a single shift, 54% seeing dead adults, 54% seeing neglected or unaccompanied

children, 26% seeing dead children, and 25% from a mass overdose in 2016.

Part of the study also recorded that out of 54 firefighters, 23 (43%) would “somewhat” or

“very much” like to receive training to cope with stress, 33 out of 55 firefighters (60%) would

“somewhat” or “very much” like training at work to help identify stress in themselves and others.
 Linker, Seadler, and Mattingly are fortunate enough that they have debriefings to cope

with their stress. After traumatic runs the three sit down and talk about what happened and what

could of gone differently.

One thing that helps Linker stay focused during his shifts at work, is a lot of coffee. He

said there is never a time he goes without it.

Fire hat of Shaun Linker at his home in Pleasure Ridge Park in Louisville, Kentucky

Shaun Linker getting water hoses ready for a car fire off of Ashby Lane in south Louisville
Shaun Linker’s old fire mask that got damaged from a structure fire.