Nursing, paramedic skills prove beneficial to deputy
Since he was four years old, Lauderdale County Sheriff’s Deputy Sam Upchurch has known
he wanted to work in law enforcement.
“Growing up, all I ever wanted to be was a law enforcement officer,” said Upchurch, who holds two associate degrees from Meridian Community College. “I remember being in kindergarten, and every kindergartener is asked, ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ My answer was always the same. I wanted to be a police officer. I wanted to be a cop. I wanted to be a deputy.”
His instinct for helping someone in distress has always been Upchurch’s guiding principle, whether working as a law enforcement officer, a paramedic or a nurse.
“I just love helping people,” explained Upchurch, who recently spent the day at the Lauderdale County Health Department protecting healthcare workers who were administering the COVID-19 vaccination to area residents.
“COVID has changed the way we serve the public,” he noted. “It has altered the way we do our jobs on a daily basis. It is one more threat with which we in law enforcement and as first responders have to contend.”
Born in Meridian, Upchurch grew up in Livingston, Ala. He graduated from Sumter Academy in York in 2002, and then joined the U.S. Army, serving for seven years.
In 2006, Upchurch took his first step toward achieving his childhood dream of a law enforcement career and began working as a deputy for the Sumter County Sheriff’s Department in Alabama. Two years later, he went to work for the Cuba, Ala., Police Department, and then joined the Meridian Police Department in 2010.
While working as a Meridian police officer, he earned his Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) certificate through an eight-hour class at MCC in fall 2012. A year later, he left the police department to enroll as a full-time student in MCC’s Paramedic Program. Paramedics’ training builds on their EMT education and prepares them to be more advanced emergency medical care providers.
“I had wanted to go to paramedic school for some time, so when I got this wonderful opportunity to go to MCC, I decided to take it,” he said.
Upchurch earned his Associate of Applied Science Degree in Emergency Medical Science – Paramedic Technology through MCC in summer 2014. He gained a great deal of experience working for Metro Ambulance Service while he was in paramedic school but decided he wanted to further his training in emergency medical care. So, he enrolled in MCC’s nursing program, starting classes two days after completing the paramedic program.
“I learned so much in paramedic school, but I quickly realized there was so much more I wanted to learn,” he said. “I really wanted to further my education, so I said to myself if I have gone this far, then why not go a little further.”
While he continued working at Metro as a paramedic, Upchurch pursued his nursing degree full time. A member of Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society, he graduated with an associate of applied science degree in nursing from MCC in 2016 and went to work in the emergency department of Rush Foundation Hospital. His wife, Katie Upchurch, also a graduate of MCC’s Associate Degree Nursing Program, works at John C. Stennis Memorial Hospital in DeKalb. The couple has a four-month-old daughter, Olive.
Upchurch loved being able to use the critical care skills he learned in nursing school to help sick, injured and critically ill patients who came into the emergency department.
“Going to the ER was the place to be,” he said. “It was a natural fit for someone with a law enforcement and paramedic background.”
Along the way, he began volunteering as the tactical medic for the Lauderdale County Sheriff’s Department’s SWAT team, and the pull of law enforcement became too great.
“I realized how much I missed law enforcement, and shortly thereafter I rejoined law enforcement,” said Upchurch, who became a deputy with the sheriff’s department in July 2019.
The nursing and paramedic skills Upchurch learned at MCC have been invaluable in his work as a deputy.
Those skills proved especially beneficial last March when he responded to an early morning call of shots fired across the street from the county courthouse's sheriff’s department. Retrieving his medical bag from the car, Upchurch found Chancery Court Judge Charles Smith lying on the concrete, bleeding from a gunshot wound.
He quickly assessed the judge’s wound, applied pressure to stop the bleeding, and stabilized him until an ambulance arrived. As a result of his swift response, he was named Deputy of the Year by the Mississippi Sheriff’s Association, received a Top Cop Award from the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office and was nominated for the U.S. Department of Justice’s Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service in Policing, which recognizes law enforcement officers who have made exceptional efforts in effective policing.
“My background as a nurse and as a paramedic has been a huge advantage,” Upchurch said. “This education has provided me information not only about human behavior and human psychology but also about the human anatomy and physiology, which can be a huge assistance when responding to certain calls. Knowing information about different medications that some individuals, with whom I may come into contact, may or may not be taking also is a great assistance.”
He said his medical background allows for more cohesive communication between law enforcement, the public, and local medical resources, such as community mental health organizations and hospitals.
“It allows for me to be a better advocate for the public,” Upchurch said.