Relay: In Tom’s Basement
I feel like I spent most of the month of April in Tom Field’s basement.
This may sound like an odd statement, I realize, but if you have any connection to the network of emergency medical providers on the South Fork, you get it.
Tom’s basement, for decades, has been the epicenter for those learning the lifesaving skill of cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Believe it or not, it’s the home of the East Hampton Town police training center, complete with training equipment, multiple exits, and male and female bathrooms — all very professional. I’m told it ended up there when the police didn’t have room way back when. He’s not just some guy teaching CPR in a dungeon.
A longtime volunteer with the Amagansett Fire Department’s ambulance company, Tom has been teaching CPR for even longer. When prodded by a certain reporter who likes to collect such details, he fessed up that he’s taught over 1,000 courses in 35 years. He estimated that he’d taught the skill to 5,000 to 6,000 people. “I figured it out a few years ago. I forgot what I did with it,” he said.
Did I mention he doesn’t take a dime to teach the courses?
Several years back, at a luncheon honoring him and Al Phillips, another well-known South Fork E.M.T. instructor (that’s what Tom spends the rest of his time doing), the question was posed: “How many of you have been in Tom Field’s basement?” Practically every hand in the room went up.
Cops, firefighters, E.M.T.s, lifeguards, coaches, and those with no medical background at all have found themselves in Tom’s basement to learn CPR It may seem like an unlikely place to go to learn a lifesaving skill, but it’s the place to be to do it — if you’re going to do it right.
My fiancé and I, both emergency medical technicians, took Tom’s American Heart Association CPR instructor course so we could help our Fire Department out in getting all the volunteer firefighters recertified as needed. As with everything else in the volunteer emergency services system, there aren’t enough people to meet the demand.
What we got in Tom’s class was more than just instruction on how to lead a class and pop in an A.H.A. video. We got a crash course in public speaking and how to be a good teacher. I doubt there are many other CPR instructors who hand out Dr. Robert Ovryn’s “Principles of Learning.”
Then there was the critique of our CPR skills. It was part lecture, part hands-on. He never wanted us sitting for too long during the three-hour classes, so when it was time to get down on the floor with Anne, the mannequin, he’d yell out his signature “Chop, chop. Mushy, mushy.”
A friend of mine thought it was strange when I said I was taking the class partially because I wanted to make sure I was really good at CPR. It’s not exactly something people aspire to be good at, but it’s one of those skills that, as an E.M.T., I’m constantly seeking to improve. Even when done perfectly, with all the stars aligning, it may not bring a patient back to life, sadly. But it’s a comforting feeling to know you did all you could.
We still have our internship — we have to teach a class in front of him — to complete before he’ll turn us lose with students of our very own. He wants to make sure his students’ CPR is perfection so they can teach their students to do it right and with confidence.
When we reached the final night, though, I was most struck when he thanked us for taking the class. “The biggest honor for me is watching you train people.”
His is going to be a tough act to follow.
Taylor K. Vecsey is The Star’s digital media editor.