This story is the first in our summer storytelling series, which follows Hoyas’ adventures near and far. Follow along on Georgetown.edu and on our social media channels.
Tharun Potluri (H’25, M’29) became an EMT when he was 16 years old.
Tharun Potluri (H’25, M’29) has been an EMT since he was 16 years old and will start at the School of Medicine this fall.
After school and on weekends, he’d respond to 911 emergencies like car accidents and cardiac events in his hometown of Montgomery, New Jersey. Last year, Potluri was named a crew chief in the Montgomery Emergency Medical Services, supervising a team of EMTs while on shift — all while being a student at Georgetown.
Potluri graduated from the School of Health in May. But before starting medical school at Georgetown this August, he had one more item to check off his bucket list: becoming a firefighter.
Developing a Passion for Health
At Georgetown, Potluri continued his EMT work while exploring his interest in health and medicine.
Potluri volunteered for a year as an EMT for the Glen Echo Fire Department, just a short drive from the Hilltop Campus. While a full-time student, he’d often spend his long weekends and school breaks back home in New Jersey picking up EMT shifts. His EMT work opened him up to the idea of a career in medicine.
“What drew me to Georgetown and being pre-med was the experiences I had as an EMT in high school. EMS was my first glimpse into the world of medicine – not through textbooks but through people,” he said. “Every call revealed the impact that compassionate care can have, and it was in those moments of caring for patients at their most vulnerable that I realized I wanted to pursue a career in medicine.”
As a sophomore, Potluri was named a Joseph Sweeney, S.J. Scholar and accepted into Georgetown’s Early Assurance Program, granting him early admission to the Georgetown School of Medicine’s Class of 2029.
Without having to worry about the MCAT and medical school applications, Potluri devoted his last two undergraduate years to his interest in emergency services and health.
Potluri spent three years at Georgetown as an EMT in the Georgetown Emergency Response Medical Service (GERMS)
In GERMS, Potluri often spent over 30 hours a week on shift driving the GERMS ambulances and responding to calls ranging from allergic reactions to traumatic injuries. Over his three years in GERMS, Potluri rose through the ranks of the organization, becoming a crew chief at the end of his sophomore year and serving as the president during his junior year.
This past year, Potluri served as the captain and director of operations for GERMS, overseeing day-to-day operations and serving as the agency representative to the Department of Health. In this role, he frequently liaised between GERMS and other emergency response agencies in the region, including DC Fire and EMS, the Metropolitan Police Department and the Georgetown University Police Department.
Potluri said his experience as an EMT has informed how he views medicine and the importance of caring for the whole person.
“Being an EMT opened my eyes to how important compassionate care is. I often respond to calls for patients who are having the worst day of their lives,” he said. “An action as simple as holding their hand or taking the time to truly listen can be just as impactful as any medical intervention I can do.”
Fighting Fires and Advancing Burn Research
While volunteering as an EMT at Georgetown, Potluri explored another interest – one that hit close to home.
As an EMT in high school, Potluri responded to a patient who sustained significant burns as a result of a cooking accident. Despite the immediate care he and his team provided at the scene, the patient ended up passing away at the hospital the next day. This experience spurred Potluri’s interest in burn treatment and research.
Since his first year at Georgetown, Potluri has conducted research at the Firefighters’ Burn and Surgical Research Lab at the MedStar Washington Hospital Center, where he has been involved in work surrounding post-burn fluid resuscitation, inhalation lung injury, wound healing and more. He specifically focuses on understanding post-burn scar dyspigmentation to improve the quality of life for burn survivors.
After four years of burn research, Potluri had a thought. He wanted to better understand what he was researching in the lab and seeing in the field as an EMT. To do that, he had to become a firefighter. Knowing that he wouldn’t have time once he began medical school, Potluri saw the summer after his graduation as his final opportunity.
This summer, Potluri is training to be a firefighter before starting his medical school journey.
“I felt like I was missing the other half of emergency services,” he said. “I also wanted the unique perspective of going inside a fire and seeing from the other side what it’s like for the burn survivors I spend so much time conducting research for. It’s one thing to study their injuries in a lab — it’s another to feel the heat and start to understand what they’ve been through.”
In December, Potluri joined his hometown’s volunteer fire department as an exterior firefighter. He helped firefighters with establishing water supply, hose management, ventilation support and exterior fire suppression on emergency calls.
“Being an EMT, I’ve gotten used to the lights and sirens and everything moving quickly. But being in the back of a firetruck is a whole different world,” he said. “If I thought EMS moved fast, the fire service moves faster. Every move is deliberate and efficient. Everyone knows their role down to instinct. It’s synchronized, it’s intense, and it’s all about getting to the scene and getting right to work.”
In May, Potluri enrolled in his local county’s fire academy.
Potluri starts his days at 5:45 a.m. when he drives to the firehouse to pick up his gear before heading to the academy.
At the academy, Potluri spends his mornings in class learning about fire behavior, building construction and hazardous materials. In the afternoons, he’s on the fire training grounds putting out real fires on mock scenes, from simulated apartment buildings, to propane tanks, trains and more.
“We go in and practice with all of our fire gear on, which weighs about 70 pounds in total. It’s very physical,” he said. “We’re outside in 90-degree weather working on skills and fighting fire all day long.”
Potluri hopes to take on firefighting shifts on the side while he is in medical school.
When he gets home in the afternoon, Potluri doesn’t wind down. He often takes on a five-hour EMT shift that lasts until midnight. On the weekends, Potluri takes on more EMT shifts while being on call for his volunteer fire department.
“It’s a lot of work, but it’s everything I wanted to do,” he said. “There’s nothing else I would want to spend time doing this summer other than firefighting and EMS. It’s my ideal summer.”
Bridging the Gap Between Emergency Services and Hospital Care
As Potluri prepares to enter medical school in August, he said his experience as an EMT taught him valuable skills for medical school and gave him a more holistic perspective on medicine.
“As a prehospital provider, I’ve developed an appreciation for how critical the early moments of a medical emergency are, especially in burn care,” he said. “It has shaped the way I want to practice medicine — not just focusing on treatment in the hospital, but understanding the full arc of a patient’s journey, starting from the moment they are pulled out of a burning house or put into the back of an ambulance. That perspective pushes me to think holistically about continuity of care, long-term outcomes and the patient’s experience through the health care system.”
Potluri hopes to use his experience as a firefighter and EMT to one day practice burn surgery, a branch of trauma medicine.
In spite of a demanding medical school schedule, he has no plans of slowing down his passion for the emergency services. He’s already scouring local volunteer fire departments where he can ride as both a firefighter and EMT for a weekly overnight shift.
Above all, Potluri is excited to stay home at Georgetown to continue his medical career.
“All of the values I loved in undergrad are also reflected in the medical school and in the way they teach medicine to their students,” he said. “I wanted to be a person who graduated from Georgetown’s School of Medicine with the values they instill in their providers and the impact they are taught to make not only on their patients but on the broader systems that shape the health and wellbeing of everyone.”
