A Nation Watches: New Docuseries Profiles Lifesaving Work of EMS Crews

Standing six feet tall, with a face adorned with numerous facial piercings and a body covered in tattoos from fingertips to collarbone, clinical specialist Bob Luddy, a paramedic with Austin-Travis County EMS (ATCEMS), has a unique look.

“I’m not the guy at the school pickup line other parents will choose to initiate a conversation with,” he says while laughing. “People think I’m a scary big guy with tattoos.”

But the demeanor of the other parents changed once Luddy became a television star nearly overnight. From early August through mid-October, ATCEMS is being featured prominently in A&E Network’s nonfiction series “Nightwatch Nation.” The docuseries follows medics from ATCEMS as well as medics from three other cities—Yonkers, New York; Tucson, Arizona; and Baton Rouge, Louisiana—as viewers get a front row seat to overnight first responder shifts.

“Nightwatch Nation” is an expansion of A&E Network’s popular “Nightwatch” docuseries from executive producer Dick Wolf and 44 Blue Productions. From the moment the show began to air, people gushed over Luddy and his colleagues.

“It’s been interesting how Nightwatch Nation changed my personal life,” says Luddy. “Suddenly, I’m the guy on TV with a respectable job helping others. I actually have been recognized at places where I go off duty. People stop me all the time and want to initiate a conversation.”

Other paramedics, on the other hand, enjoy giving Luddy a good-natured ribbing about his newfound fame.

“Word hit the first responder community in the area pretty quickly as soon as the cameras showed up about what was happening,” he says. “I walk into a room now and everyone shouts ‘Hey Hollywood, how’s it going?’”

Captain Holly Craghead of ATCEMS can relate. Each time she's appeared on the show, friends and family will immediately text or call her.

“My cell phone blows up every time I’m on the show,” she says. “It’s been fun."

Craghead had never seen the original “Nightwatch” series prior to casting but has been watching the “Nightwatch Nation” episodes as they aired. Sometimes, as she would watch the episodes she appeared in, she would armchair quarterback her decisions.

“I sometimes found that I would second-guess myself during a call,” she says. “You can really break a call down and ask yourself what would you might have done differently. I think I probably critique myself over and over again, wondering how to improve upon something or do it faster.”

Luddy also has never seen the original series.

“I didn’t want to go into filming with any preconceived notions of what the production team might be looking for,” he says. “I wanted to keep to myself and be the paramedic that I am.”

Since the show has wrapped up filming, Luddy has seen every episode that's aired to date.

“I love it,” he says. “I think it’s a great thing for EMS because it’s showcasing the services that all of us across the country provide to the citizens that we serve. It’s a great way to increase the public’s knowledge of what we do.”

Both Luddy and Craghead say they were not nervous when the cameras began rolling on calls. But there was a brief adjustment period. During Luddy's and his partner’s first call, everyone was quiet in the cabin of the ambulance.

“For my partner and I, we were hyper-cognizant of the fact that the film crew was there and we were being watched,” he recalls. “We had this 10-minute response to that first call and it was quiet. We’re never quiet but since this camera was pointed at us while we were wearing microphones, we were wondering what to do or say.”

When they arrived at the scene of that first call, there was an extremely ill one-month old baby and the focus quickly switched to the patient and the family—nothing else mattered. Luddy had a vague notion that the film crew was behind him, but once that first patient was in front of him, the cameras became an afterthought.

“We focused on the patient like we normally would have,” says Luddy. “The crew, to their credit, was very good about where to place themselves and not get in the way. They allowed us to do our job without interference from them and we let them do theirs. After that first shift, we started to get to know the film crew better, and even joked with them between calls. Everything was good.”

Craghead equates the experience of each call to being on a soccer team.

“You know at all times where your striker is going to be so you can almost pass blindly up the field to that spot,” she says. “The camera crew was like that. We knew where they were going to be and could take steps in a certain way to not get in their way. They also knew our movements and could anticipate where we needed to be. After the first call, the cameras just disappeared for us. We didn’t notice them anymore.”

While being on TV has been exciting for everyone at ATCEMS, Luddy hopes viewers get a better understanding of what EMS is as a result.

“The general public by and large think that we’re ambulance drivers,” he says. “Many people are unaware that we save lives. Everyone knows what a firefighter is and does, and what a police officer is and does. But few people seem to know what we do. Watching EMS crews in Yonkers, Baton Rouge and Tucson has really opened the eyes of the people I’ve spoken with about our profession. This show is telling the citizens of this country what it is that their EMS services do for them. It’s phenomenal.”

Craghead agrees.

“The biggest thrill of this experience is seeing people get excited about EMS and Austin-Travis County EMS,” she says. “EMS is relatively new. It started in the 1970s and many people still don’t know what it is and only see us in an emergency. Through this series, we’re increasing the general education about what we do. We’re also showing people the diversity and dynamic ability of our system. This has been a positive experience for our agency and EMS throughout the nation and I’m happy to be part of it.”

For more information, visit www.austintexas.gov/department/ems.

Daniel Casciato is a freelance writer and social media consultant from Pittsburgh, Pa. He makes his living writing about health, law, social media, and technology. Follow him on Twitter at @danielcasciato.