Laughing To The End

SEBRING - Like every paramedic who's served 30-plus years, Mickey Byrd has dealt with critical life-and-death situations and has more than a few gripping stories.

One of his in particular, about a terminal teenage patient whom he says "surely must be an angel," puts a lump in the throat of anybody with a functional heart.

Beyond his work on ambulance runs, Byrd has become known as the most prolific amateur comedian and the top practical joker, by far, among the paramedics and EMTs in the Highlands County Emergency Medical Service.

Steve "Plunkett" Coltharp, acting director of EMS, said Byrd's friendly, fun-loving, outgoing personality leaves a lasting, positive impression on people. Coltharp said he's often run into people who've dealt with Byrd just once, as a patient he treated or transported or one of the patient's family members.

"They'll stop me and ask, 'Is that fella, Byrd, Mickey Byrd, still around?' " Coltharp said. "People remember him, because he likes people, and it comes through."

Byrd is still around, but as of Saturday he's no longer a paramedic because he jumped into retirement.

On Friday, Byrd, a 1967 graduate of Sebring High School, where he was a buddy and classmate of soon-to-retire Highlands County Administrator Carl Cool, worked his last day after serving 32 years and seven months with Highlands County EMS.

In fact, Byrd was one of the original emergency medical technicians when the county's EMS service was founded. He began his interview with Highlands Today on Friday by telling the reporter about a half dozen corny jokes when he was asked where he was born and raised.

"I was born in Enterprise, Alabama," Byrd said. "Do you know small it was? That town is so small, it wasn't big enough to have a town drunk. So three guys took turns filling that role.

"It was so small," he continued in his dead-pan, poker-face style of humor, "that that's why everybody uses what we call a 'toothbrush' today. The toothbrush was invented in Enterprise, you know. Of course, if it was invented in a bigger town, they would have named it a 'teethbrush.'"

His partner on Friday, EMT Todd Kreulen, sat at a table next to Byrd and rolled his eyes, pointing to Byrd, as if to say he's heard all of Byrd's jokes a thousand times.

"He's like this 24-7," Kreulen said, laughing. "All the time. Never stops."

Kreulen answered ambulance calls with Byrd from the Tomoka EMS station just north of Lake Placid on Byrd's last day at Byrd's request.

"He is the best partner I've ever had and he's the best EMT I've ever worked with," Byrd said about Kreulen.

"Why?" Byrd was asked.

"Because he's very smart, and because he cares so much about the patients," Byrd said.

Byrd said he graduated from high school with no idea what he wanted to do "except that I wanted to make a living." His brother in-law at that time was an ambulance attendant with the sheriff's office when the sheriff's office handled that task, and he told Byrd about the work.

"He told me stories and I said that sounds interesting, so I signed up for the (EMT) class," Byrd said. In 1983, Byrd became one of the county EMS's first paramedics.

Byrd called his job with EMS "the best job that I could imagine anyone could have." Seeing tragedy is always tough, especially when children are suffering from injury or illness, he said, but the rewards of helping people far outweigh the hard times.

"I've gotten more out of my job from the patients I've seen than I ever could have imagined," he said.

He's had many memorable ambulance calls, but one stands out above all the others, he said, even though it didn't have the happy, miracle ending he wished for. He helped transport a 15-year-old girl who had severe scoliosis (curvature of the spine) to All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg.

"Her case was so severe that her chest could not develop normally and there was no room for her lungs and heart to grow," Byrd said. On the long drive into St. Pete, he said, "she and I talked and laughed the whole way over, non stop. And I couldn't believe how she knew she would never live to be an adult but yet she was so upbeat and so sweet and so positive."

About six months later the girl's sister called Byrd and reported that she had passed away. The sister told Byrd the 15-year-old had specifically asked her to call Byrd and thank him for being so kind and for being a good friend.

Byrd didn't lose his composure, but he did choke up slightly when he added, "I thought then (the day he transported her) that she had to be an angel. And to this day I still think she's an angel. I'll always know that she is an angel."

Earlier in the interview, asked about his frequent joke telling and practical joke pranks pulled on colleagues, Byrd said, "In a job like this, you have to laugh, and laugh as often as you can and as much as possible."

Byrd and wife, Teri, have been married 31 years. They have two sons, Mike, who owns a floor cleaning company in Sebring and Orlando, and Matthew, a computer specialist, plus two granddaughters and one grandson.

About his plans for retirement, Byrd said, "I hope to play a lot of tennis and do a lot fishing. And travel, too."

Where does he most want to travel?

"Anywhere my wife wants to go," he said. "It's time to get a hybrid and just get on the road and ride. Going where? Anywhere she wants to go will be fine with me."