'I've delivered a few babies over the phone,' says Gagandeep Singh Padda

Gagandeep Singh Padda has been working as a Communications Officer for St John Ambulance for nearly five years now. His job is to attend to calls made to '000'; he is trained to take the shortest amount of time needed to assess the situation and direct the call to the relevant emergency service. "I'm just loving it - I feel very grateful to be doing this job," Gagandeep told SBS Punjabi.

Gagandeep Singh Padda, who is featured prominently in a St john Ambulance WA video Source: Supplied

Communications Officer Singh was recently featured in a video released by St John Ambulance WA, highlighting the kind of work he does everyday.

Speaking to SBS Punjabi, Gagandeep said, "I'm no different to any of my colleagues at St John Ambulance. I just fell into this ‘role’ by chance. I was at work one day and I was told that I was going to be interviewed – I didn’t realise that it would be a proper video production which so many people would go on to see and appreciate.”

Born and brought up in Mumbai (India), Gagandeep came to Australia as a student, and completed MBA at Edith Cowan University in Perth. He landed a job soon after, but wanted to move to a position that would be more challenging and fulfilling. That‘s when the vacancy at St John Ambulance WA caught his eye.

“I had studied Science subjects until Year 12 and was really keen to pursue it as a career. I was given full training and have loved my job every single day that I have worked. I feel blessed to be doing this and can’t thank Waheguru enough.”

Communications Officer Gagandeep S Padda standing by a helicopter ambulance Source: Supplied

Talking about type of emergencies that he’s faced with, as the 000 calls come through everyday, Gagandeep said,” It could be stepping a son through CPR and other life saving procedures over the phone, in case their parent is having a cardiac problem.”

“Recently I helped someone deliver a baby. They were calling from a remote country area and were at least 90 kms away from the closest hospital. I stepped the caller through the process and the baby was delivered in the car!.”

“I have delivered a few babies over the phone,” Gagandeep said with a laugh.

Speaking about the challenges, Gagandeep said, “ We have no visuals to support the call. Only audio. So we have a very short space of time to assess what the real issue is – at the end of the day, we are only good as the person on the phone is.”

“I’ve been fortunate to receive some recommendations along the way. One was an internal recommendation from our Ambulance team. I remember when I took the call, I could sense that the person on the other end of the line wasn’t talking normally. On his request I dispatched the ambulance, which had two female paramedics, but I also alerted the Police to go the address as well. It just so happened that the ambulance had been called to a drug house and the person was turning violent – the Police got in just on time. It feels good that I was able to pick that up during the call and our staff remained safe.”

Officer Gagandeep Singh Padda at work for St John Ambulance WA Source: Supplied

Despite these everyday challenges, Gagandeep loves his job and thrives in the unique workplace environment. “The staff is simply fantastic  and very multicultural. I have colleagues from Africa, UK, the Islands, Mauritius and more; even the callers who come through to us are from various backgrounds.”

“And there are lots of incentives too – I work four days and get the next four days off, which is fantastic that I can be with my family a lot. There are many salary packaging and other pre-tax benefits and I highly recommend this job to anyone considering it.”

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