After 34 years of service to Austin County Emergency Medical Services, Assistant Chief Jim Turnbull signed off and entered retirement last Wednesday, May 26.

Turnbull originally found his interest in EMS when he had a construction accident in 1986 and soon after enrolled in an EMT class at the Methodist Church sponsored by Houston Community College. He said his first event was in 1987 but at that time, the county only offered basic life support (BLS) assistance even though Turnbull had special skills to perform advanced life support (ALS).

“I could intubate, start IVs, give certain drugs,” Turnbull said in a May 28 interview. “Even though I was trained to do all these things, I couldn’t do it here so I started asking around how do you become advanced life support? You had to have a medical director, infrastructure and equipment, and we didn’t have any of that.”

After he finally secured a medical director and signatures to help fund the infrastructure, and after a couple visits to Austin County commissioners court, he got all the approval needed. The next challenge, however, came when confronted with the community that thought only BLS could still be provided.

With each call, they were able to show off their skills and eventually earned the trust and support enough to spawn a brand-new EMS facility on Highway 90 in Sealy.

“Eventually the ECAs (emergency care attendants) went away and got into the EMTs (emergency management technicians) and above and as you can see a brand-new station came out of our hard work,” Turnbull said.

That new EMS Station No. 2 served as a motivating factor for Turnbull after an off-duty injury that saw a displaced tibial plateau fracture and a broken ankle on his left leg.

“I’ve been a paramedic for so long but I still didn’t know what a tibia plateau was. I knew what a tibia was, what a fibula was, what’s a plateau?” Turnbull posed. “1% of all fractures is the tibia plateau, it’s the second-most serious fracture behind cervical. Mainly because 33% of all your body weight is on that plateau so when I broke it in three places, it splintered and displaced. I’ve got 12 screws, two plates and a six-inch cadaver bone in my leg and I got two very long screws in my ankle.”

With construction chugging along on the new station while he was going through his rehab, his mission was to spend just one night in the new station.

“One of the things Chief (Walter) Morrow was doing was helping me find a purpose to get healthy, to get stronger to get to come back to work,” Turnbull said. “My goal was to spend one night in the new station because I was part of the design team. I have pictures from when it was a bare lot, to where it is now. I was part of the purchase through the ESD, I just wanted one night and that one night came back during the freeze in February. That’s when I came back but I really had to ask how much longer do I really want to do this?”

With a 65th birthday coming up in July and still a limited range of motion, Turnbull eventually came to the conclusion it was time to walk away although plenty of community members said they will continue to rely on his expertise.

“When do you retire? When you don’t love it? I still love it, I still enjoy meeting the people. Did I dread sometimes waking up in the middle of the night? No, because that’s the job,” Turnbull said. “My phone rings a time or two a day with people asking, ‘Hey, can my dad take this?’ or, ‘Hey, can you come over and take a look at my mom, she stumbled in the backyard.’ I don’t want to be the guy that says, ‘Nope, I’m retired.’ I’ve developed a trust in our community and I value that.”

People have also come to know and love his voice on the broadcasts of the Sealy Tiger Sports Network, where he has been recognized on EMS runs.

“We had a lady on the bed vomiting in a bucket, I come in there and just ask, ‘Hey, what do you guys got?’ She takes her head out of the bucket, she goes, ‘Hey I know that voice, you’re that guy!’” Turnbull recounted. “She calls her husband in and tells me to talk, I go, ‘Hi sir, how are you, my name’s Jim,’ and he goes, ‘I know you!” The cool thing was every Friday night they’d go to Hinze’s and order a baked potato. Their kids bought them a laptop and speakers and they said, ‘We listen to the whole game, we listen to the pregame, we listen to halftime and then when it’s over, we listen to it the next day.’ It was just so special to me because was that the target audience? Maybe. But I know it was more than just them who had similar stories.”

With plenty more time, he may be seen at even more games and may return to his Crazy George superfan days, but he said he is thankful he will be retained as an advisor to ACEMS.