HILLSBORO, N.J. (WCBS 880) — A New Jersey man is working to save lives and careers in two jobs.
Matthew Streger is a lawyer, working out of his home office in Hillsboro, but he's also an EMT with the Cherry Hill Fire Department.
Streger has been an EMT and paramedic for 34 years, but made a late career change that didn’t entirely divert him from his passion.
“In 2003 I decided to go to law school and 5, 6 years ago decided to create a law firm with my partner Margret Keavney that specializes just in EMS law," Streger told WCBS 880's Mike Sugerman in this week's Difference Maker.
So he knows his subject, the clients, and the law as well as anyone out there.
And one expertise feeds on the other.
“I think one of the things that makes me very successful as an attorney is knowing how to speak to people and I learned that as a basic EMT," he said.
He learned that as an EMT you have to get to the point right away, there's no time to waste, and Sugerman reports Streger isn't wasting any of his time during this COVID era in which he’s seen 75 of his comrades die on the frontlines nationwide.
Streger still works a couple of shifts each month though he says he has seen very few coronavirus cases, if any, during that time in the field.
And he’s well prepared.
"I'm not worried, I think I manage my risk, I think there's still greater risk driving the ambulance lights and sirens than catching COVID," Streger said.