BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — Hall Ambulance graduated 12 new EMTs on Wednesday, each bringing unique stories and renewed passion for serving their community. Among the new recruits is Aubrielle Lucia, whose personal experiences with medically fragile foster siblings inspired her career path in emergency medical services.
Lucia didn't always plan to become an EMT. Her journey began at home, where her family's commitment to foster care shaped her understanding of medical challenges and compassion.
"My family has a lot of foster care siblings, and so they started that before I was even born. Then we started again when I was 14, and we specifically focused on medically fragile babies and toddlers," Lucia said.
"So I've dealt with an array of medical problems, an array of situations that are just really stressful and difficult. And so I was always interested in the biological field, and just medical stuff. And that inspired me to want to pursue that as a career," Lucia said.
A particularly challenging moment with a foster sibling solidified her career choice. When her little brother began experiencing seizures, the family's frequent hospital visits opened her eyes to the complexity of medical care.
"I had a little sibling that had seizures, and so he started getting seizures all the time, and so we had to actually go to hospitals and figure out what was going on. And it was my first time also being opened up to the reality of how different medical scenes are," Lucia said.
"I think that was a moment I was like, Okay, there's so much more to the medical field that I don't know, and it made me more excited to go into that," Lucia said.
The graduation ceremony, attended by friends and family, celebrated Kern County's newest first responders. Among the proud attendees was Lucia's father, Jeff, who expressed confidence in his daughter's abilities.
"Seeing her graduate here was important because, because, not just for me, but just for her, because of the fact that I know she has the ability to be able to do this. I know she has the head smarts to be able to do, do what needs to be done," Jeff Lucia said.
As Lucia prepares to serve Kern County residents during potentially their worst moments, she plans to bring the compassion she learned from her family and the medical professionals who helped them.
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