I’m Thankful for the Day I Fell Off That Forklift…
Don Armstrong’s career was headed nowhere fast when—as an apprentice carpenter—he fell 40 feet in an accident involving a forklift. The accident forced him to re-evaluate his career path, and led him to a career in healthcare. Twenty-two years later, he couldn’t be happier.
When I graduated from high school, I knew I wasn’t prepared for college. So I took a job as an apprentice carpenter, mainly because the pay was pretty good for someone with limited experience.
Unfortunately, I learned rather quickly that I was the world’s worst carpenter, but I couldn’t think of anything else that I could do. And just when it seemed as though I had hit rock bottom professionally, things got worse.
I was stripping the roof off of a warehouse and the foreman told me to get up on a platform on a forklift. And when the forklift raised four stories, the platform came crashing down with me on it. I fell 40 feet, shattered my elbow, banged up my wrist and head, and wound up spending a year recovering from my injuries. I vowed never to return to carpentry.
While in recovery, I saw television ads for a local technical college and decided to pursue a degree in electronics, which turned out to be one of the best things I ever did.
After graduating, I landed a job working on medical equipment — I had found my calling. Once I had experience under my belt, I started doing contract work on ventilators at Stanford University Hospital, where I landed a job servicing medical equipment. Twenty-two years later, I am still working for the same hospital.
Here at Stanford, the nurses, anesthesiologists, and physicians have tremendous respect for what we in clinical engineering do. In fact, a few years back the hospital named the entire clinical engineering department co-employees of the year for “going the extra mile.” Receiving the honor shows how critical it is to work as a team.
To be recognized — or to simply be a good technician — you have to know how to work with people and provide good customer service, especially in stressful situations. You also have to be self-motivated and reliable. Sure, technical skills are important. But I’d rank that third of the three in importance.
I’ve always liked working with people, and in construction I didn’t have that opportunity. Now I am part of a team that relies heavily on interpersonal skills to succeed.
My experiences have made me proud to be in the healthcare field — so proud that I recently became certified as a biomedical equipment technician (CBET). While becoming certified is a great way of demonstrating competency, I saw it more as a way of giving back to the field that saved my professional life. As strange as it may sound, I’m thankful for the day I fell off that forklift.
I have to pinch myself every time I think about how — from my humble beginnings as the world’s worst carpenter — I am now part of a world-renowned facility that is doing amazing things.
—Don Armstrong, CBET
SOURCE: AAMI News: Vol. 42, No. 9, October 2007
