STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- Many who work in the medical field as EMTs say it becomes somewhat of a family at work. But at Centre Lifelink EMS in State College, there's an actual brother-sister duo saving lives together on emergency calls.
Their journey actually began 15 years ago when touring an ambulance as kids.
Cassie Cigich, 21, is a junior at Penn State University majoring in Biochemistry with hopes of getting into medical school. Her younger brother Sean, 17, is a senior at State College Area High School and will be getting his paramedic certification soon.
Centre Lifelink EMS saves lives every day. But it's also able to link the Cigich kids to their passions of helping others.
"I've been running with them for a few months now as an EMT," says Sean, who started volunteering in September. "I really enjoy it. It's a great experience."
Cassie has been working at Centre Lifelink EMS since she was 16-years-old. At first, she wanted to be a lawyer but her mind changed quickly.
"My friend showed me this really cool EMT book and I was like, 'Wow! I think I might be interested,'" she recalls. "Ever since then, I've been working here doing it and I can't imagine doing anything else."
They're truly a lifesaving pair working together in the Centre Region. Just last week, they took a picture documenting the first time the went out on an emergency call together.
Now they save lives in a similar ambulance and everyone on Facebook is raving about it.
"I thought it would be cool to get a picture of us just to compare and see what we've done and I thought it was great," says Sean.
"My brother came to me and was like, 'Oh my gosh, Cassie, I found this picture' and I was like 'That's so cool,' Cassie says. "We finally took a picture just like it in the back of an ambulance when we were working together last week. I never knew it would reach that many people."
The post reached thousands of people.
"This is something like we've never had before," says Centre Lifelink EMS Executive Director, Scott Rawson. "It's super exciting for us as an organization to have Centre Lifelink out in not only our community but out across the country. It's amazing."
There's no sibling rivalry here. Both younger bro and big sis can agree that working together to better each other and help others is a dream job come true.
"To be doing this together it's great that we both got into it," says Sean. "I knew what my sister did when I was looking in to doing this and I looked up to her."
"To have a family member here, it makes me feel good because he's obviously on the right path," says Cassie. "So it feels good as an older sister that he's kind of following in my footsteps."
Rawson says this is actually pretty rare. In his 18 years at the organization, he can only remember one brother-sister duo working together as EMTs.
Sean works about 20 hours a week, he says, on top of school work. Cassie is finishing up college, working 40-60 hours a week, while preparing to apply for medical school.
For more on Centre Lifelink EMS and how you can get involved, click here.
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