A Close- Up Look At People Who Matter : 17-Year-Old Answers Call in Emergency

Alex Ghazalpour, 17, often sees youths his age--or even younger--brought into the hospital emergency room beaten up because they were caught in a mind-set that only being tough counts.

“Well, was it worth it?” Alex, a volunteer in Glendale Adventist Medical Center’s emergency room, might ask the injured teen-ager.

“Yeah,” the other boy might answer. “I had to prove myself to my girlfriend.”

“I just laugh at that,” said Alex, a Crescenta Valley High School junior. Then, he tells the youth, “You’ve got better things to do with your life.”

Alex has wanted to be a doctor since he was 11, when his grandfather suffered a fatal heart attack. The paramedics who went to great lengths trying to save his life in a 45-minute battle made a great impression on the youth. He started volunteering at the hospital in 1991 after his grandmother also had to be hospitalized.

“He was very enthusiastic, and he knew what he wanted to do,” said Sandy Contreras, the volunteer manager who recruited Alex. She assigned the teen-ager to the emergency room where he works odd jobs and helps as a translator for Armenian-speaking patients.

Alex probably has the most volunteer hours ever logged by a teen-ager at Glendale Adventist, 5,500 hours since 1991, Contreras said.

The youth also has a part-time job as an emergency medical technician at the hospital, working a 12-hour shift on Saturdays.

The work gives him a clear view of what to expect of his future in medicine. “I’ve got every bit of it worked out,” he said confidently.

His enthusiasm for emergency work can be summed up in his nickname at the hospital, “Rick Rescue,” which is usually given to a gung-ho worker.

“I really love working in the emergency room,” said the teen-ager, who frequently asks police officers he meets at the hospital if he can go on “ride-alongs” with them. He said he gets a thrill during the rides when the officers get a “Code 3,” a call in which the police car rolls with lights flashing and sirens screaming.

Alex also teaches cardiopulmonary resuscitation and first aid, and is the type of person who will always stop to help when he sees an accident.

Alex is of Persian Armenian descent and his bilingual ability especially comes in handy when working with Glendale’s large Armenian population. He might, for example, help to calm frantic parents whose young son had been hit by a car.

Alex also teaches some key Armenian words to paramedics, such as “ Chav unes ?” which means, “Are you having pain?” or “ Vorteg ?,” which means, “Where?”

While on a ride-along with police, he once acted as interpreter to tell a drunk driving suspect that he was going to the hospital so that his blood alcohol level could be tested.

Alex, one of about 40 emergency room volunteers--about half of whom speak Armenian--hopes to return to the hospital for his residency after graduating from medical school. He believes he owes Glendale that, he said.

“It’s like the whole city of Glendale has taken me under its wing and taught me what I’ve learned so far,” he said.

Alex said he often encourages young emergency room patients, as well as his high school friends, to volunteer.

“It offers them an introduction into the community, and it leads them into bigger and better things,” said Alex, the 1993 runner-up for the Glendale mayor’s annual Youth Citizenship Award.

But awards are not why Alex works so hard both as a volunteer and as an emergency medical technician. “It’s the thank-you that you get afterward; that’s what counts.”

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