Someone San Diego Should Know: Rick Burger

by Jan Goldsmith

Beginning age 7 when Rick Burger heard sirens he would jump on his bike and try to follow the emergency vehicles. That continued until he began driving and would get in his car to follow them. “I really don’t know why,” he said. “Maybe it was the excitement factor.”

During college, a friend who watched Burger follow emergency vehicles suggested he become a paramedic. So, he took an EMT (emergency medical technician) class. “After the first 10 minutes, I thought, ‘This is me,’” he recalled.

Burger dropped out of college in 1980 to pursue a paramedic career. After a year assisting paramedics as an EMT, he went on to serve as a paramedic for 44 years working for companies providing emergency services in the city of San Diego.

He figures he has administered medical assistance to about 55,000 people, saved thousands who otherwise would have died and lost an equal number who he thought he would save. He has delivered 15 babies.

He also trained hundreds of San Diego paramedics over the years.

“Every time I save someone’s life, I get a rush. It makes you feel good about yourself,” Burger said. “But there’s the other side where you think you’re going to save someone, but you don’t. It’s frustration and a let-down.”

Some calls stand out as let-downs or rushes.

In 1988 his ambulance pulled up to a house, and a man ran out yelling that his estranged wife had stabbed him and was inside threatening their 5-year-old son. Burger and his partner could hear the child screaming. “We were about to run in when the SWAT team radioed us an order to stand back. They were on the way,” Burger recalled. “While waiting for the SWAT team, the mother killed the boy and herself.”

“In retrospect, we should have gone in. I was upset and still think about it.”

Then, there was Big John on Christmas Eve in 1993, a hefty bartender who suffered cardiac arrest. “We worked on him for 45 minutes and transported him to Mercy Hospital, but didn’t think he’d make it,” Burger said.

“Later, we returned to the hospital on another call and decided to visit Big John’s room. We saw his daughter was there by his side. She said, ‘I love you daddy.’ He opened his eyes and smiled.

“It was a rush.”

And there was the Silver Strand Half Marathon in Coronado on Oct. 10, 2019. Burger was working the special event at the finish line when a 27-year-old man fell over with cardiac arrest. “I defibbed him, and he came back,” Burger said. “If I was not there, he would have died.

“They gave me a medal. I was hoping for a free sandwich, but I got the medal.”

The job entails more than rushes and let-downs.

“I have had to restrain people and some are on drugs or alcohol,” he said. “I got punched and spit on.”

He recalled in 1990 a suicide call. When he and his partner arrived at the home, the daughter said her father was trying to kill himself in the backyard. They rushed to the back and saw the man dousing himself with gasoline, a lighter in his hand. “We ran at him, took the lighter and restrained him. We saved his life. I felt good. But I smelled like gas.”

When asked how someone can hold such an emotionally draining job for 44 years, Burger responded that sometimes he uses humor and other times he talks with co-workers, family members and occasionally a therapist, as he did after losing the 5-year-old boy.

“A lot of people burn out after five years,” he said. “I’m one of those who can see … blood and broken bones, and they don’t bother me.”

Burger, 67, lives in the Lake Murry area with his wife of 33 years, Anastasia. The couple has two adult children.

He semi-retired in June, continuing to work a few days a month. Mostly, he plans to play a lot of golf and relax.

“But I won’t be chasing sirens.”

About this series

Goldsmith is a Union-Tribune contributing columnist.

We welcome reader suggestions of people who have done something extraordinary or otherwise educational, inspiring or interesting and who have not received much previous media. Please send suggestions to Jan Goldsmith at jgsandiego@yahoo.com

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