MFRD Medical Director Officially Retires

Dr. John McMahon, Jr., Medical Director for the Mobile Fire-Rescue Department, has officially retired. Dr. McMahon served officially for 31 years (1991) as the contracted Medical Director and unofficially for 34 years (1988), maintaining his passion and respect for emergency medical services and the people who provide care through the entirety of his career.

Dr. McMahon is a graduate the University of Alabama School Medicine in 1979. As a member of the Class of 1982, McMahon completed the Richland Memorial Hospital Emergency Medicine residency program, where he would eventually serve as the Program Director. 

As an emergency care specialist, Dr. McMahon has served in the U.S. Army and has been active on the boards of the American College of Emergency Physicians in both South Carolina College and Alabama. He has been instrumental in advancing the field of EMS, particularly in the state of Alabama, through legislative efforts, the creation of Alabama's Disaster Medical Assistance Team (DMAT), service on the state's medical control committee, and his multiple deployments with major disaster response efforts domestically and internationally.

As a physician, Dr. McMahon has dedicated a lifetime to treating patients and saving lives in emergency settings. Not to be forgotten, however, is his continued advocacy for the advancement of emergency medical services. For many years, firefighters, EMTS, and Paramedics were only allowed to provide the bare minimum of patient care. Many physicians throughout the State and across the region were mistrusting of EMS and fire departments with regards to treating patients outside of hospitals. In 1988, McMahon began working with the City of Mobile’s fire department, responding to calls, reviewing their processes and aptitudes, observing competencies with patients, noting interactions with hospital staff, and more. He recognized an opportunity for growth and a need for patients to receive life-saving interventions before arriving at hospitals.

In the early-1990s, McMahon was the only Medical Director for an EMS-fire department in Alabama, pressing for changes in legislation to give EMS providers more allowances in the field, promoting education and improved skills.

McMahon recalls, “Even though it’s fire-rescue, eighty percent of the calls we make are medical. Back then, there were physicians who didn’t trust medics to do things, and the only way to get to know the people in the streets [and their capabilities] is to be in the streets with them. EMS has been the biggest part of the ER – it’s the eyes, ears, and hands of the streets. We wrote legislation to push for allowing procedures to be done in the streets – life saving procedures.”

There are certainly many achievements, accolades, and certifications to list from Dr. McMahon’s illustrious career, but Dr. McMahon's gentle spirit, humility, dedication, mentorship, and passion will be remembered most of all.

For so many on the Mobile Fire-Rescue Department – rookies and veterans alike – Dr. McMahon has been their Medical Director, reviewing their patient care reports, offering helpful feedback or encouraging words. Almost all members of MFRD have his personal cellular number, to call at a moment’s need for medical advice in prehospital care with patients. MFRD’s District Chief of EMS Jim Cox praised, “He’s been instrumental in every decision we’ve made in EMS – in our procedures, to new ambulance purchases, and our medical application. He’s extremely dedicated. He QAs nearly every EMS call. For 21 years, during Mardi Gras, I can’t remember a single year where he wasn’t working side-by-side with the crews in the streets. His record of leadership, education, contributions to improving prehospital care, and community service has served as a shining example of selflessness to generations of physicians and other medical professionals.”

Dr. John McMahon’s final date is June 30, 2022, and his radio call sign of MD 109 will be officially retired by MFRD along with him. His life and legacy of service will be remembered by all he touched and felt by the hundreds of thousands of lives impacted through his dedication to emergency medical care.

In a final, bittersweet radio transmission, Dr. McMahon enters retirement with a simple, “MD109 . . . signing off the air.”