One of the state's longest-serving paramedics - and the Illawarra's most experienced - is retiring after more than half a century in the job.
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Terry Morrow is working his last shift on Friday, May 3, wrapping up 55 years of service to the community, in which time he has helped them through some of their darkest days.
Chief Inspector Morrow first signed up as an honorary, or volunteer, ambulance officer after leaving school in 1969 with dreams of becoming a police officer.
With a downturn in recruitment for the force, the Huskisson teen took on a first aid course in the meantime and topped the class, propelling him into a career he turned out to love.
It is a passion that continues to the end; his daughter Megan Okkonen, herself a paramedic, describes her dad as the living embodiment of the quote: "Find a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life".
Chief Inspector Morrow officially joined the NSW Ambulance service as a paid employee in April 1972 and worked in Nowra for several years.
It was the sudden death of he and wife Diane's second child, Christian, which pushed him into intensive care because he felt he needed to do more.
What followed was a six-month course in Sydney and a year and a half of on-the-job training, a time he recalled fondly on Friday.
Despite loving his time in Sydney, he moved back to Wollongong and established the intensive care course in the Illawarra - a major step for the region, he said, which saved many lives.
He went on to become the region's first helicopter paramedic, and worked in rescue many years.
Picking a highlight of his career was difficult, but Chief Inspector Morrow recalled the rescue of a man who had to be winched off a cruise ship off Fiji for urgent surgery.
The pilot gave him just five minutes to get the man on-board because the chopper's fuel was running low.
Another job of note came after learnt of a teenage girl in desperate need of a heart transplant.
When a 14-year-old boy suffered non-survivable injuries in an accident in the Illawarra, Chief Inspector Morrow and his partner treated him in such a way that his parents were able to make the compassionate decision to donate his heart to that girl, saving her life.
She is still alive, married with children of her own, and Chief Inspector Morrow has drawn on that experience to teach younger paramedics the value of thinking laterally.
Over the course of his career, Chief Inspector Morrow delivered 42 babies; he was also shot at twice, and stabbed three times.
While he deeply loved his job, he said he felt it was time to move on, and he looked forward to spending more time with his family.
"I'm more than proud of what I've done over the last 55 years," he said.
"I think that the service is in a good condition and... I believe that the officers we have are very good clinicians.
"I always appreciated the help of the police, the fire brigade, the hospital - specifically the ED, where the nurses and doctors were always accommodating to us if we brought in patients."
Dozens of colleagues, friends and family gathered at Dapto and Warrawong ambulance stations on Friday to honour the contribution Chief Inspector Morrow had made to the community and his profession over the past five decades.
Megan Okkonen, Chief Inspector Morrow's daughter, was inspired to become a paramedic because of her father and said she was "very fortunate and blessed" to have worked alongside her dad.
"He's truly loved his 55 years," Ms Okkonen said.
Chief Inspector Morrow was leaving big shoes to fill, Jade Marks, NSW Ambulance's acting associate director of clinical operations for the southern sector, said.
"He is the type of person that just cares, always wants to know what's going on in your world," she said.
Mandy Gray has worked with Chief Inspector Morrow for more than a decade now and said he was a genuinely kind person and a great clinician with a wealth of experience.
The Dapto station officer said he would be greatly missed.
"At the end of the day, my career and my personal life has been made better by knowing Terry," Ms Gray said.
Natalie Croxon
Reporter at the Illawarra Mercury, mostly covering social affairs. Previously of the Bendigo Advertiser, Northern Daily Leader and Quirindi Advocate. Our Watch award winner.
Reporter at the Illawarra Mercury, mostly covering social affairs. Previously of the Bendigo Advertiser, Northern Daily Leader and Quirindi Advocate. Our Watch award winner.
