A College Dropout Works Toward Saving Lives
A woman bolted around the corner and began to shout. Her frantic cries for help filled the air with a feeling of desperation as she led five men toward a little girl lying on the concrete ground. Red liquid seeped into the girl’s yellow shirt and stained the material a rusty orange. Kneeling beside the girl, Brandon Broa reassured the shrieking woman he would do the best he could to save the girl’s life.
Moments later, a man walked over to the scene and held a plastic bottle full of the same red liquid over the girl. He squirted more onto her neck and informed the group she was spurting blood. The men acted immediately and began to work. Broa took charge and shouted questions at the others about the girl’s condition as he rummaged through a large duffel bag with bandages, gauze, oxygen masks and other medical equipment inside.
It was only a drill. The girl covered in fake blood tried to contain her laughter as Broa bandaged her neck, and the other EMT students strapped her onto a spinal board that would have helped transport her to the nearest hospital.
Not all of the practice scenarios at Southwest Florida Public Service Academy in Fort Myers are exciting. The students usually work with dummies, but occasionally real people are used to help the future EMTs visualize bodily problems and injuries.
Broa, 25, has wanted to help people since he was young. Over the last eight weeks, he has been training to become an EMT. He dropped out of college over a year ago, but now he’s at the top of his class at the fire academy.
“I feel like I’ve taken the steps to become a better person,” Broa said. “Someone more selfless who makes better decisions.”
Ditching alcohol and energy drinks was one of those better decisions. After deciding to become an EMT and a firefighter, he has worked on improving his overall health and fitness. During his time at Florida Gulf Coast University, Broa drank regularly and stayed awake most nights. If he wasn’t sleeping through the day or working at Nike, he was playing video games. His focus at FGCU was making new friends, not completing a bachelor’s degree. Whenever he tried to read a book or study, he would fall asleep.
“The books were so boring,” Broa said. “I had always been a B student until I got to college. That’s when things started to get rocky.”
Even though he went to FGCU for four years, he didn’t receive a two-year degree. Broa chose to major in psychology but wasn’t ever sure if that was what he truly wanted.
“I was just kind of going with the flow,” he said. “All I knew was that I wanted to offer others help and guidance.”
As a child, he thought the most about becoming a psychiatrist. Now his fantasy is being a medic who works at music festivals. Even though Broa has changed since college, video games and raves are still woven into his life. Both, however, were put on the back burner to make room for EMT and fire school.
After he graduated from high school, Broa and his family moved from Norton, Ohio to Cape Coral, Florida. Having played soccer since second grade, Broa received a full-ride scholarship to play for a private university, but he turned it down to stay near his family.
“I always loved playing soccer growing up,” he said. “It instilled a sense of brotherhood in my mind, which is a big part of being an EMT and a firefighter.”
Broa’s EMT class consists of 26 other students. Since he is at the school to learn, he isn’t the best of friends with anyone there. Despite that, his peers enjoy his company and respect him for having the highest GPA.
“It was clear from the start he was an intelligent guy,” Ryan Duffey, an EMT student and the class’ president, said. “I hope he gets hired right away. I’d feel good about having him respond to a call involving one of my family members.”
Duffey, along with other classmates, mentioned Broa is the only one who spends his lunch break studying or reading his book.
“We call him ‘The Professor’ because he knows the answer to every question here,” Duffey said.
Some students don’t mind passing the tests with 70s, but Broa holds himself to a higher standard. He has matured since attending FGCU and doesn’t believe his classmates should be proud when they only do the bare minimum. Broa said he trains like somebody’s life depends on it because someday it will.
“Me knowing the material on those tests could be the difference between someone living or dying,” he said. “This isn’t like taking a math course. Even when I get a 96, I still feel like I can do better.”
Despite not yet acquiring a college degree, Broa loves to learn. He will continue to pursue new knowledge as long as he can because knowledge can never be taken away from a person.
Before starting EMT school, Broa quit his job at Nike to fully focus on his EMT and firefighter training. Because of this, he had to save enough money over the last year to pay for his time at the academy. His determination to succeed has put him at the top of his class, but he has remained humble. His lowest test score was a 93. He passed a national test before he completed the entire assessment. He still said he’s not better than anyone else.
“There are no do-overs for me,” Broa said. “This is my one opportunity to do this because I don’t have the money or time to go through this schooling again. I’m not giving up, and I’m not going to fail.”
Because of the academy’s paramilitary status, the EMT students must stand at attention at the end of each school day while the instructors discuss if their performances were satisfactory. The designated officer of the day, an EMT student in charge of the class, walked to the front of the room.
“Class 1901, attention!” he yelled. Twenty-seven students simultaneously bolted upright.
An instructor shouted how horribly out of sync the class was. He said, “Do it again!”
Everyone sat back down, and the officer of the day yelled once more. The students stood with straight backs, their hands balled into fists at their sides. They stood still for the next 10 minutes, and no one so much as coughed while the instructors talked about how the class needed to take the practice scenarios as seriously as real life.
Broa had transformed into a statue during those 10 minutes, his rigid stance showing respect toward the ones in charge.
“[Broa] presents himself like he’s been in the military before even though he never was,” Duffey said.
“The military aspect of the school is definitely different for me because I’m normally the loud-mouthed smart-ass,” Broa said. “But I try to keep my comments to myself and be more mature.”
His family is happy he’s serious about pursuing a noble career. Since he isn’t currently working, his mother encouraged him to stay home instead of living alone to save money. Even though his family recently moved into a bigger house in Cape Coral to accommodate eight people, Broa still has to share a room with his 20-year-old brother Jordon Broa.
“I’m supportive of any decision he makes, but I do have fears he’ll get hurt,” Jordon Broa said. “I’d much rather see him just being an EMT than a firefighter because I’m going to be constantly worried he’s going to get injured and possibly die.”
Broa’s brother and mother have similar worries. His mother, Charlene Broa, expressed being nervous about him voluntarily putting himself in danger, but she is still proud of what he has accomplished in two months.
Broa believes making a difference in somebody’s life is worth all the risks he might have to endure himself.
“I’ve realized it takes a sick person to do this job,” he said. “Lots of other people run away from blood, vomit and mangled bodies, but I want to run toward it all.”
