Maria is a woman rather small in stature, whose love for people led her to a professional career where emotions must be kept in check and which made her a witness to the most important moments in life: birth and death.

Maria Ivanov has been the coordinator of Mobile Emergency Service for Reanimation and Extrication (SMURD) Prahova for 15 years. Since she was a child, she wanted to help others. That is how she ended up attending medical school at Fundeni.

'Each of us prepares in life to do something and to do it well. I prepared to help people. I started my training to become a nurse at Fundeni in Bucharest. In the meantime, I started a family, and fate brought me to Prahova, where I had to practice my profession, so I began my career as a nurse at a kindergarten with extended hours. As a colleague nurse retired, I got to take her place. That's how I was transferred for work purposes to the maternity ward at the newborn section of the hospital in Mizil,' Maria Ivanov told AGERPRES.

Here, she saw how life begins, what a cocktail of emotions such a moment can bring. 'I had to do beautiful things that I thought I would never do. I saw how life begins, what sacrifices, what joys, what cocktail of feelings and emotions it can produce, and this made me continuously prepare, to love life even more,' she explains.

Destiny took her back to Bucharest when her husband was transferred to the capital for work, and during this time, Maria found out that there were vacancies for 'firefighter' positions. She applied for a position, thinking that this way, she would escape intense emotions because, she told herself at the time, a firefighter has nothing to do with the medical act.

'Surprise! At the firefighters, the emotion is pure adrenaline!' she exclaimed, laughing, as if amazed by her naive thoughts back then.

When she returned to Prahova, Maria Ivanov worked as a Prevention inspector for four years, and since 2010, she has taken over the coordination of SMURD Prahova.

'In my mind, I thought I wouldn't work with blood anymore, meaning that I would return to the firefighters and be a rescuer or do something completely different, just not have so much contact with blood. Life showed me otherwise, and I was right there, metaphorically speaking, up to my elbows. I ended up in deep waters because SMURD actually stands for Mobile Emergency Service, Resuscitation and Extrication. And it was again a beautiful combination between office, documents, and intervention, because everything is interconnected. And then I had to move from theory to practice, absolutely everything. It's true that my previous training and experiences helped me a lot, but life surprises us every day,' Maria recounts.

She chose to be in daily battle with hazard and the unforeseen because she wants to save lives, and now, after so many years, she says that without adrenaline, she wouldn't be herself.

'I've always loved people, and I chose out of love for people and for life. We have only one life, and we can lose it in a single moment. That's all it takes, just a moment. And we don't value this. Even the protocol says that our brain can't be without oxygen for more than 5 minutes. So we don't realise that our life depends on 5 golden minutes!,' says the coordinator of SMURD Prahova.

Each experience, each intervention she has participated in has been different. Even though some may be similar to a point, in the end, each one is unique and leaves its mark in its own way, through its intensity and what it teaches you. Each one leaves its imprint on the rescuer who, at the end of the day, leaves the shift differently from how they entered, always and forever.

'The interventions I have participated in until now have never been alike. Up to a certain point, I can say they happened in the same place, at approximately the same hour, that they were somewhat similar situations, but they were never exactly the same. There was always something different. (...) Now, if I look back, I have stories to tell, and they are beautiful, but the emotions have a unique intensity that inevitably marks you. (...) I think this kind of hazard has become a routine. Because if I didn't have adrenaline, I would think I'm not myself,' says Maria Ivanov.

Do rescuers manage to detach themselves from what they see, from what they live through? From the tragedies that so often cross their path? Do they manage to forget mangled bodies like the one that has been etched in Maria's mind for 25 years, images that go far beyond horror films? On the surface, yes.

Speaking of a first experience during her training, she says 'I've never seen anything like it. The emotional and visual impact was impressive. At first, the situations I encountered affected me deeply, I would get overwhelmed and try to find solutions. Doing this job over time, having solutions, gives you that relaxation, that firmness in action. Life has shown me that even during your free time, it's impossible not to encounter various situations, and you can't remain indifferent.'

Maria says that the main enemy of people in critical situations is panic attacks, followed by haste, which, in this context, at the wrong moments, can mean death.

She brings to mind that calls to 112 should be made in case of acute emergencies because otherwise, precious time is lost, which could mean the loss of a life in real danger.

''Live long' is the most beautiful wish for a soldier who is constantly battling hazard! I believe that if I were to start over, I would do it without regrets, and the same goes for the fact that (...) if I witnessed the beginning, seeing how a life begins, I also witnessed the end of a life. The sacrifices are just as great, believe me. The only difference is that the first one is received with joy, although there is suffering there too - the baby cries and asks for something, so it's not content with the cold, it has come out of warmth, from comfort. There is crying there too. On the other side, it is more painful because there are loved ones. (...) There are also cases when some survive and are born a second time,' Maria explains.

Her work has been rewarded so far with the 'Meritul Sanitar' (Sanitary Merit) Medal, awarded by presidential decree in 2021, and two promotions for saving lives during her free time and while on duty. AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Anamaria Constantin; EN - writing by: Adina Panaitescu)