Kevin Aguilar believes anyone can learn how to save a life.
The EMS instructor has spent his life trying to do just that. He has worked as an EMT. As a firefighter. A lifeguard. He also served his country as a Marine.
From 2006 to 2010, beginning at the age of 18, Aquilar served in the Marine infantry and even celebrated his 21st birthday during a tour in Afghanistan.
“I was four years active duty and four years inactive,” he said. “We trained for Iraq, but ended up in Afghanistan. I had to learn Pashtun or Pashto, the language they spoke in the southern part of the country. I’m still in touch with one of our interpreters from Kabul.”
Though he quickly learned how to speak the language and navigate the culture, Aguilar’s experiences in Afghanistan left him with a mental trauma that would take years to overcome.
“I had a bit of a breakdown,” he said. “We were part of the largest helicopter assault since Vietnam. We were at war. You’re thinking about how you might get blown up at any moment. Finally, at 22, I got out.”
As soon as Aguilar return to the states, he entered an intensive PTSD program with the Veteran’s Affairs office. Trying to leave the traumatic events of his military service behind him, he began working as a security guard in Denver. Nevertheless, moving on was not as simple as he had hoped, and he was confronted with the reality of his anxiety and depression, something his current situation only aggravated. Knowing he needed to change course, he sold all of his furniture and lived out of his car for a year.
“My heart and soul were telling me I wasn’t where I wanted to be,” Aguilar said. “I moved down to Vail and worked as a ski lift operator for a year, and then I worked as a logging manager for the Vail (Ski) Resort.”
Still unhappy with where he was, Aguilar continued to move around, working several different jobs before he ended up in Durango. At that time, he was living in an Astrovan he had purchased and remodeled for $3,000. He eventually attended and graduated from the Durango Fire Protection District training program and was hired as a firefighter for the Upper Pine River Fire Protection District, working at the North Vallecito station.
“Bruce (Evans, Upper Pine River fire chief) hires a lot of veterans,” he said. “Half of the fire department are veterans.”
Aguilar had finally found his calling, working as a firefighter and an EMT, saving homes and lives... until 2020 rolled around.
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, rescue crews were dispatched to the home of an elderly man who had gone into cardiac arrest. Aguilar immediately began performing CPR, having no idea that the man was infected with COVID-19. Aguilar fell ill several days later, and though it seemed he had fully recovered within five days, he soon realized something was wrong.
“I would go on a run, and my heart rate would sky rocket,” he said. “COVID really affected my lung capacity. I had to admit to myself that I couldn’t perform my duties anymore. I would no longer be able to pull someone out of a burning building.”
Once Aguilar realized he would no longer be able to work as a firefighter, he decided the next best thing would be to step into an instructor role with the department.
“I’ve gotten pretty good at it,” he said with a smile. “I’ve developed a passion for it.”
Aguilar teaches classes for the Upper Pine River Fire Protection District on emergency medicine, and his students have ranged in age from 15 to 51. His youngest graduate recently was Ethan Bustamante, a Durango High School junior and the son of another firefighter.
“It’s very rewarding to watch them succeed,” Aguilar said. “I have all this knowledge, and I just want to pass it on.”
Aguilar believes anyone can learn basic lifesaving skills, and he is pushing to teach those skills to every member of the community.
“Anyone can learn hands-only CPR or how to administer an EpiPen or Narcan,” he said. “Almost anyone can also apply a tourniquet if needed or at the very least call 911. I want to teach people ‘What can be done to stabilize this person?’”
Along with the regular EMT classes Aguilar teaches, and those at the Pine River Senior Center, he will soon teach teenage pupils at the high school level. The Upper Pine River Fire Protection District’s fire chief, Bruce Evans and his staff have recently joined forces with the Bayfield High School administration to begin teaching EMT classes to their students as a potential pathway into a medical career.
“What we teach will be integrated into the school (curriculum),” Aguilar said. “What we’ll teach the kids could easily save someone’s life.”
Firmly comfortable in his role as an instructor, Aguilar eventually found love with a crew leader, while he was teaching chain saw instruction with the fire department.
“We became friends first and then she moved back to Oklahoma,” he said. “We would watch Netflix on speaker phone together. Eventually, we realized there was more going on than just friendship. We told each other we loved each other on the (Swinging) Bridge overlooking the Animas.”
The two married in August and are now expecting a child. Aguilar has finally found the happiness he has so desperately searched for all these years, and he wants to help others find similar contentment.
“You’re not as alone as you feel,” he said. “I think of depression as a dark cave and pulling out of it is like lighting a torch in the darkness. I want to light that torch and help guide other people out of that cave.”
As a man who has spent many years working selflessly to save the lives of others, he has also managed to save his own.
molsen@durangoherald.com
