As he rides in the back of an ambulance ­scrambling to 911 calls and administering to patients as a newly-minted paramedic, 70-year-old Don Bush is getting used to a typical query.

“A lot of the time, I’m transporting people younger than I am.” Bush said. “One of them said recently ‘Do people ever ask you: Sir, shouldn’t you be the one on the stretcher?’”