By Paola Tristan Arruda | April 13, 2020 at 10:38 PM EDT - Updated April 14 at 6:45 AM
CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - Two Lowcountry paramedics will soon head to New York to help the state battle the coronavirus.
New York is where most coronavirus cases are being reported in the United States. They are asking for health care volunteers, as their facilities become overburdened.
Paramedics Seth Toft and Gary Hobart both heard the call for medical workers. They started looking up volunteer opportunities and found one.
Hobart says their biggest concern after that, was going to their current employer and asking them to leave for six to eight weeks. Both men work at Family Medical Transport, a locally owned and operated ambulance service.
“We are supposed to be working out of Billie Jean King National Tennis Center which they’ve turned into a hospital,” Hobart said. “The way it’s looking right now, we’re going to be going up there doing COVID-19 examinations and testing. We will be doing a lot of the things we do now as paramedics, just in a hospital instead.”
They are set to be there until May 31, but both men will have to self-quarantine for 14 days when they get back.
That means it will be a few months before Hobart can see his family.
“I just explain to them that daddy has a determination, or a want to help people," he said."I have a skill-set to do that, and I feel like I have responsibility to help those people.”
A spokesperson for FMT released the following statement:
Family Medical Transport Ambulance service is a locally owned and operated Ambulance service. We service Charleston, Berkeley, Dorchester and Colleton Counties. We love our community and have made strives to continue our effort to take care of the patients we serve and will continue to do so.
Disclosure: FMT was not asked nor did FMT send Gary or Seth to the New York area. We are not sponsoring them. They have left our company to pursue a contracted event coordinator with another company. They were not furloughed during this event.
We wish them well: After learning that Gary Hobart and Seth Toft were leaving only last week to head to the New York area to help out as EMA contractors in the New York area. FMT wishes them “all the best.”
Copyright 2020 WCSC. All rights reserved.
Photo: Live 5 News