Jan. 6, 2023 Orange County firefighter Matt McMahon, who was diagnosed with PTSD, was terminated a second time after he refused to work a paramedic shift.
Source Firehouse.com News
An Orange County Fire Rescue firefighter if fighting to get his job back after being diagnosed with PTSD and being terminated for a second time.
Matt McMahon, a former U.S. Marine, joined the fire department in 2006 as a firefighter/EMT.
After seeing the life-saving measures that firefighter/paramedics carried out, McMahon funded his own paramedic license, according to WFTV.com.
“I became a firefighter and an EMT, which is exactly what my pre-employment contract states, so I was not a paramedic [when I started],” McMahon said. He attended 52 weeks of training, plus 100 clinical hours in order to obtain the license.
As his career went on, the interactions as a paramedic began to weigh on him.
“It was a 19-year-old kid, who had decided to take his own life. My son was probably at that point 14, just started his high school years,” McMahon told the television station.
As the calls continued, “I remember becoming increasingly more anxious with my son,” McMahon recalls.
He asked his supervisors if he could drop is paramedic and resume working as a Firefighter/EMT in February 2021.
According to a lawsuit, the department allowed the move and shortly after, he was terminated.
“Instead of proceeding with [an] interactive process and discussing other options or accommodations, he was charged with violations of county policy, operational regulations, OCFR rules, and standard operating procedures,” Attorney Rachel Rodriguez wrote.
He filed a grievance and was reinstated with the condition that he maintained his paramedic license. At that time, he had been diagnosed with PTSD and was attending therapy.
He was terminated when he refused to work a shift where he was assigned in a paramedic role.
“It wasn’t necessarily me I was worried about, it was the citizens of Orange County,” McMahon told the television station.
“That one time I ask for help, not asking for a dime, not wanting to medically separate and take 30 grand or whatever they’re giving out, I just want to go back to being an EMT … ‘we don’t care about him,’ that’s how I felt,” McMahon said.