You might not know her but when you fall prey to crime or have a medical emergency you will wish you did.
Jen Jacobs, a first aid practitioner and victim support counsellor at Dunmar Security is a woman with a passion for serving her community. This 29-year-old’s journey in the industry started 11 years ago when she worked in correctional services in the UK where she was military trained in the various disciplines relating to her work. These included fire safety, self defence, firearm trading and first aid.
Jacobs said a large part of her work is attending to motor vehicle accidents and pedestrian accidents but she also sees her fair share of more serious incidents such as crime scenes, suicides, domestic violence and serious medical emergencies like heart attacks.
“I am not really scared of anything but certain things do disturb me, especially domestic violence, suicides and anything where children are involved. At the end of the day I have to put my own emotions aside while on the scene and deal with them later,” she said. According to Jacobs her first responsibility is counselling the families and even looking after the often traumatised police officers and other medics present. She said she never leaves a scene early out of respect for the victims.
Sometimes her stories did have happy endings though.
“One of my best memories was being called out to an elderly man who was having a heart attack. I was the first to arrive and managed to stabilise the patient even though he was sinking in and out of consciousness. The emergency service eventually came and took him to the hospital but essentially I saved his life,” she said.
“It is not a career for everyone. It takes courage and passion,” said the woman who has arrested eight suspects in the past two weeks.
As far as her future plans are concerned, Jacobs said she would like nothing more than keeping on serving her community.
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