UIC student becomes full-time EMT in Chicago amid coronavirus pandemic

CHICAGO - She is a full-time college student and a full-time EMT in the city of Chicago. As you can imagine, the on-the-job training she is getting right now, as a medical student during a pandemic, is priceless.

Mariana Delgado enlisted in the Army in 2017. Her goal was to become a combat medic.

"There's a constant feeling of uncertainty when I'm going to respond to a call, not being exactly sure what I'll be encountering especially with coronavirus,” she said. Who knew how valuable Cadet Delgado's skills would be on the streets of Chicago? She certainly never knew a pandemic was in store when she enlisted in the Army, gaining combat medic training and an EMT license.

"Recently in the past two-ish weeks, I don't really get out on time very often because we've been running a lot of calls,” she said.

When classes at the University of Illinois-Chicago went online, she went to work, becoming an EMT full-time and assisting coronavirus patients daily with other heroes on the frontline.

"We've had to make some arrangements due to the coronavirus situation, keeping more decontaminating tablets on our ambulance…after we have a coronavirus patient making sure we have the proper PPE,” Delgado said. "The shortness of breath, the dry cough, the weakness, I see a lot of those people that weren't previously on oxygen…getting sent home with oxygen."

Those in the Army have a strong sense of personal courage and Delgado is channeling hers every day.

"It is nice to say that I can confidently at the end of the day say that I protected somebody to the best of my ability and I made a difference in their life that day,” she said.

Cadet Delgado will graduate this winter. She will join the Army full-time and hopes to become a physician's assistant when she is done.