Austin County EMS announced Sunday the passing of recently hired paramedic Michael Dodd. He was 23 years old. EMS Chief Walter Morrow said the Katy native died at his home Saturday morning off duty and as of press time, no cause of death had been announced.

Thursday afternoon, it was announced a viewing will be held Monday, Aug. 23 from 4-8 p.m. at Schmidt Funeral Home in Katy (1344 West Grand Parkway South) and funeral services will be Thursday, Aug. 24, at 10:30 a.m. at St. Justin Martyr Parish in Houston (13350 Ashford Point Drive). A reception will follow at the church immediately after the service.

Dodd was hired by ACEMS June 29, according to the department’s release. Morrow said Dodd had worked at Memorial Hermann Hospital as an ER Tech for about three years before applying to the Austin County job and had just recently finished his orientation shifts.

“When we brought him in, we could see that EMS has been one of those things that had been near and dear to his heart,” Morrow said in a Monday interview. “Obviously from high school on, the public service realm (was a passion, and) he was just super excited and enthusiastic.”

Morrow said although he hadn’t been part of the Austin County family long, some members of the team had worked previously with Dodd at the hospital.

“Everybody enjoyed working with him between shift changes and the days on orientation, they loved working with him and several actually worked with him at Katy in the ER as well,” Morrow said. “Two of our staff members worked with him on a routinely basis, two of our paramedics here work part time there at Memorial Hermann, so they knew him fairly well and what type of guy he was so it’s been hard for them.

"It’s just a shock in general for everyone, 23-year-olds are not supposed to just pass away like this,” Morrow said. “In a few short shifts, he was accepted into the brother and sisterhood of emergency services personnel and became one of the team right away. We’ll all bend over backwards to do whatever we can to help someone out.”