As part of its 150th celebration, LICH is profiling some of the individuals who make the hospital a great community resource:
Aaron “Spike” Scharf, 44, who’s lived in Cobble Hill for more than 20 years, traces his desire to be a paramedic from the 1970s television show, “Emergency.” Watching the show as a child, he was thrilled by the exploits of the ambulance crew. It was an unusual career choice for someone whose parents are both artists.
The specialty of EMS was then very new. While there were some volunteer rescue squads, hearses were often the first vehicles at an accident. The first Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) program in the United States was not offered until 1966. Advanced training to paramedic status only began in the early 70s.
Spike combined academic studies in comparative literature and writing at Columbia University with EMT classes. He began working at LICH in 1984, and had his “card” — his paramedic certification — by 1987. But, in 1992 he felt burned out and decided to take a hiatus. He pursued a Masters of Fine Arts (MFA) in writing and poetry; self publishing his creative work and supporting himself by writing for websites and television stations such as the Food Network.
The events of September 11, 2001 led him back to emergency medicine. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, Spike immediately ran to LICH’s EMS to volunteer. As his certification had lapsed, the director, Ed Caballero, EMT-P, CIC, put him to work manning phones and helping restock the ambulances between calls. By 2002, Spike had his “card” back and was working for LICH as a paramedic once again. In 2006, he was promoted to supervisor.
Spike continues to write poetry, and also enjoys reading and working out.
“For two decades, I’ve had a pair of clippings taped to the hutch above my desk: one is the EMT Code of Ethics, the other is the EMT Oath. Each contains a phrase particularly resonant to me: “to conserve life, to alleviate suffering, to promote health, to do no harm” and to “serve unselfishly and continuously in order to help make a better world for mankind.”
Spike continued: “The fact that I can do this — in the city in which I was born, in the neighborhood within which I live and, most importantly, for the people amongst whom I live — is what drives me to work every day, regardless of weather, time, and whatever else may be going on in my life at the moment. It’s what has found me in years past, walking down the middle of Amity Street, knee deep in snow, the wind ripping from the upper bay, thinking: It’s a beautiful day to be a paramedic.”
LICH is located at 339 Hicks Street.
