Corey Schmidt was raised in Langenburg and attended school in town from K-12. Now, Corey is a first responder in Saskatoon where he is filmed on the CityTV show Paramedics: Emergency Response.
The show is a fast-paced observational documentary series following several diverse and dedicated teams of paramedics from Saskatoon’s Medavie Health Services West as they respond to calls ranging from minor mishaps to life-threatening emergencies.
At the age of 19, Corey moved to Regina to take his first EMT course. His mom was a nurse and his dad worked at the potash mine near Esterhazy.
Grant, Corey’s dad, worked at K2 potash mine in Esterhazy and is now retired after over 40 years. His mom, Donna, passed away a couple years ago and was a nurse in Russell. Corey’s brother Nick lives halfway between Yorkton and Melville and has a ranch and his sister, Megan, runs a daycare in Regina.
Schmidt said, “I learned that hard working attitude from my parents and grandparents. Being a paramedic can be a stressful job but my parents always worked hard and I emulated that.”
Growing up, Corey knew he liked a dynamic environment, and the critical thinking required of paramedics pulled him in as he noticed they are needed at a moment’s notice; this impressed Corey from a young age. Many people stumbled into being a paramedic, but by grade 10 Corey knew he wanted to follow that career path. Many paramedics come from first-aid backgrounds, but Corey didn’t have the same experience. “There was a kid in my class and she had a seizure in the back of the room, near the door to get out of the classroom. It was a quiet moment in class before it happened, and all the students got up and ran to the opposite corner of the room. Everybody was scared, including myself and the teacher. When it was all over, the teacher told one of the students to get the principal and the students were moved out of the classroom; that really stuck with me. I thought at that moment that nobody really helped that kid, and nobody had the appropriate reaction; it’s no fault of anybody’s as nobody was trained, but I thought hard about that situation and thought I don’t want to be in a situation where I don’t know what to do if someone needs help. I thought becoming a paramedic was the exact opposite of that experience that I had then. It was an influential moment in my life quite honestly.”
“I feel like now if something bad is happening to somebody, now I’m the guy that goes towards them when everyone is going away from them. I want to help that person.”
Corey went in for training in 2001 after graduating high school in 2000. A guidance councillor in Langenburg helped him make sure he was taking the right classes to take the Emergency Medical Technician program. In the fall of 2001, he moved to Regina for the EMT program. “The fall of 2002 was my first full-time job as an EMT in Melfort. I worked there for about two and a half years. I had a mentor there, Chad McCord, he was an EMT advanced (the 2nd of 3 levels at the time – now there are only 2 levels). He had more education, experience and training than me. He took me under his arm and showed me the ropes of what to do. I’ll never forget when he said to me, ‘If you do your job, everything here will be okay’. He had the expectation that if I did my job, he would do his, and we would get through everything.”
“Those first couple years are rocky. There are a lot of sleepless nights wondering if you will know what to do, wondering if you will be fast enough, smart enough; it’s one of those environments that is completely unpredictable.”
Corey worked with Chad in Melfort beginning the fall of 2002 and spent roughly two and a half years together. Corey said about McCord, “He became almost like my big brother at the time, a really great guy to learn from”.
During that time, the pair would transfer patients to Saskatoon after being stabilized in Melfort. While at the Saskatoon hospital, Corey saw the paramedics there were on a different level. “They did so many more calls in a day. When we were doing one or two calls a day while they were doing eight or nine. You can’t help but be a better practitioner when you’re doing it that much more often. I thought to myself, if I want to be on that level I need to submerge myself in that environment and be around those paramedics. I applied to Saskatoon and was hired in 2005. Not only was I being paid to be a paramedic but I was getting a free education working with these paramedics from the city. I’ve been working here full-time ever since.”
“When you come from a small town like Langenburg with a small population, there is a big learning curve in becoming familiar with the streets and the fastest routes. Not only are you working on your paramedic skills but you’re working on learning a whole new environment. Growing up, there weren’t issues with substance abuse or safety issues, but now you have to look after your personal safety because there is violence here.”
Corey mentioned that he has a partner, Justin, who he is now able to teach things to, like his mentor taught him 20 years ago. “It’s a role I really enjoy doing”.
Speaking about the show on CityTV, Corey said, “When we first started, I thought it might be one or two episodes”. After the first night, the producer showed him some rough edits on his laptop and Schmidt was impressed. Now the group is on season 7.
“Tony, the producer, spoke to a paramedic and reached out to us. I was never approached to do the show initially, they had been filming with a couple of other paramedics making a pilot episode. I had been outside of St. Paul’s Hospital doing the routine things paramedics do after a call. Tony and I struck up a casual conversation while I was restocking stuff for about 15 minutes before I got another call and went about my night. My company sent me an email the next day saying the producer wanted to know if I would like to film. He thought there was something in me that he wanted on camera. Initially, I wasn’t interested as I’m a guy who doesn’t like to draw attention to himself. I didn’t really want to do it, but they said he was specifically requesting me to try it out. I thought, if they’re asking me to do it, there’s no harm in giving it a shot. So I filmed a couple nights, and the crew and producer were great. One night turned into two, and that turned into seven seasons.
The show airs on CityTV in Saskatchewan and their website, as well as in the UK, Spain and other countries. It is relatable to those around the world as people are facing the same challenges that are present in Saskatoon.”
“When the first few episodes came out, I wasn’t sure what to expect. During the first episode, we responded to a homicide where the patient died in front of a bar. When it came out, my phone went crazy. People I hadn’t talked to in years were reaching out. It was a surreal experience.”
Speaking about the issues he sees on a daily basis, Corey said, “In Saskatoon we have a problem with bear spray and knives, and the occasional shooting. We respond to many stabbings and we rely on the police quite heavily to help us out on calls, so all we have to focus on is treating the patient.”
Schmidt relayed a story about being in the moment during a rescue and not realizing he was kneeling on a shotgun shell while the police were securing the scene. It can be hard to talk about your day with people who aren’t paramedics, as it can be difficult to relate to that intense environment.
Schmidt never enjoyed the routine of a 9am-5pm, Monday-to-Friday schedule. In high school, he waited eagerly for that schedule to finish before realizing that schedule does not necessarily always change. He wanted to come up with a career where the schedule was more dynamic and you aren’t quite sure what your day will look like upon arriving at work.
“Every day is a clean slate, when you show up to work you have no idea what you’re in for.”
Tune in to Paramedics: Emergency Response to see the first-hand perspective of what Saskatoon paramedics assist on a daily basis.