An Ottawa paramedic student had an early call to duty on his way to school this morning.

21-year-old Josh Seely happened upon a crash scene at the intersection of Woodroffe Avenue and Longfields Drive and jumped into action.

Josh Seely isn't used to playing “patient” but you never know what's going to happen in his airway management class at Algonquin College. 

“Does this hurt you when I do this, Josh?” asks Paramedics professor Stephen Defilippi, as he uses Josh to demonstrate to the other students how to tell if a patient is unconscious.

The 21-year-old isn't used to playing “paramedic” either, at least not yet but you never know what's going to happen on the road.  It was 9 a.m.   Seely was on his way to Algonquin College for class when he came across a bad accident.

“I was a Good Samaritan, thought I would stop to make sure everyone okay,” he says matter-of-factly, “Just to check it out.”

He was first on the scene, before fire, police and paramedics.   Three cars had collided.  Two people were injured, with one trapped in a vehicle and another on the ground. 

When firefighters arrived, they worked to extricate that person trapped in a vehicle while Josh Seely put his year of training to work.

“Just basic first aid,” he says, “then the paramedics came and did the real work there,” he says with a chuckle.

The two-year Paramedic Program at Algonquin College is a highly competitive course with hundreds of applicants a year.  At this stage, near the end of first year, it has been whittled down to 52 students.

The professors want to know each of these students can carry his weight both literally and metaphorically. One training course involves lifting patients up and down a staircase in a team of two.  Professor Defilippi says for Josh today, this was indeed a baptism by fire introduction to the job.

“That's the way it should be,” he says, “to see how he does, how he might react and I think he reacted just fine.”

“Knowing Josh, I wouldn't expect any less,” adds fellow paramedic student Jennifer Dawes, “I'm so impressed with everybody in this program, their maturity, how much empathy and how caring they are.”

Seely says responding to the accident has reconfirmed that he is on the right career path. 

“Istill definitely want to be a paramedic, nothing's changed there,” he says.

Despite stopping to help, Seely wasn't late for class, though, given the circumstances, his professors probably would have let it go this time.