MANATEE COUNTY, Fla. — Eighteen years of training suddenly came to a screeching halt for Manatee County paramedic Sherri Pellien. 

“Everything just kind of stopped, we all looked at each other like how are we going to do this,” Pellien said. 

Last March, Pellien cared for the first know COVID-positive patient and transported them to the Doctors Hospital. 

“You just think … do they have horns? Because you just don’t know,” Pellien said. 

It was a time of uncertainty. 

Hospitals in New York were overflowing, overloaded and overwhelmed. 

Pellien was face to face with the virus, not knowing just how fast it would spread in the state a few weeks later. 

“I was scared, I was frightened. I’ve never been scared about transporting a sick patient before,” she said. 

Honored as the 2020 Paramedic of the Year, she said, out of all of the calls, the one made that March was certainly for the books. 

“I just like to take care of people. I love my job,” Pellien said.