Michael Marsh has seen COVID-19 from all angles.
Marsh, the operations manager at American Medical Response Arlington, was in New York City last spring, where he oversaw hundreds of ambulances as the pandemic swept the city. Now, he’s back in Arlington helping run a mass vaccination site that can immunize up to 2,000 people a day.
“It is so nice to see the light at the end of the tunnel with this vaccination process,” he said.
Marsh was one of the many first responders deployed to New York City to help combat COVID-19 last year. His deployment, between March and April, lasted 30 days. It was a time where there wasn’t a lot known about the virus, which led to days filled with anxiety, he said.
New York City was one of the first major cities to get hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, and working in the city was eerie, Marsh said. Not only were first responders dealing with the virus, but the fear of the virus itself.
Health care workers were exhausted, not just from the non-stop work, but from seeing the rising daily death count, Marsh said.
“You go to New York to enjoy the hustle and the bustle and the angry taxi drivers and stuff like that,” he said. “I walked off the plane and it’s silent. It was a big paradigm change for me.”
Soon after, everything changed again.
One of the paramedics under Marsh’s command, Colorado paramedic Paul Cary, died from COVID-19 in New York. Marsh, along with a few other first responders, checked Cary into the hospital where he fought the virus for several days, but his health ultimately took a turn for the worse, Marsh said.
“I didn’t know him personally, but we’re a family of first responders,” he said. “We’re one big giant family and and that hit me because I’ve never lost someone on my watch.”
Marsh found his driving motivation.
He wakes up every morning to help vaccinate hundreds of North Texans so that no one has to go through losing someone to the virus.
Cary paid the ultimate sacrifice helping people he didn’t even know, Marsh said. He owes it to Cary to Cary to keep helping people throughout the pandemic. There isn’t anyone working at the vaccination site that hasn’t either experienced the virus themselves or had a loved one experience it, Marsh said.
“There’s a lot of passion in getting this vaccination site to be as efficient as it is,” he said.
There’s still a ways to go before the pandemic is over, but Marsh is happy with how well the Arlington site is running.
“I look forward to the end of the day when I can take the family for a small vacation and say, ‘Hey, we did a good job and all the partnerships together made it successful, and we got this virus out of the way,’” he said.
To register for a COVID-19 vaccine at Arlington’s vaccination site, visit Tarrant County Public Health’s website. First responders, healthcare workers, those over the age of 65 and those aged 16 and up with underlying health conditions are eligible for the virus.
