Regional EMS awards honor life-saving measures

For the first time, ambulance crews, firefighters and others in Jefferson County are getting regional recognition for their heroics in saving lives.

The North Country Regional Fire and EMS Advisory Board recently gave out excellence in services awards to teams from Guilfoyle Ambulance Service, Jefferson County 911 dispatchers, firefighters from three fire departments, a Samaritan Medical Center physician and the Thousand Islands Emergency Rescue Service for their involvement in six incidents that occurred during the past two years.

"In each incident, lives were saved," said Ann M. Smith, director of the North Country Emergency Medical Services Program Agency.

Receiving the awards:

■ Seven members of the Antwerp Fire Department for their teamwork in saving the life of a patient suffering from cardiac arrest in 2009. They are Jonathan Cole, Elizabeth Lynch, Gheorghe Banaduc, Troy Pitts, Stacey Corey, Dick Pitts and Steve Booth.

■ Brownville Fire Department members Billie and Matt St. Joseph, Carrie LaSage, Lisa Wallace and David Marsala, and Dexter Fire Department members Joe Bova, Chris Gacey and Nicholas Pickett, who used life-saving skills on two people suffering from cardiac arrests on the same night in 2010.

■ Cape Vincent Fire Department firefighters Jeff Call, Ron Jacobs and Paul Robbins worked with Chancy Law of the Thousand Islands Emergency Rescue Service to save the life of one of their own during an event at the Cape Vincent Fire Station.

■ Mark Deavers and Deb Rieger were working for Guilfoyle Ambulance Service last March when they and Eric Hoffert of the Theresa Fire Department stabilized and transported a pediatric patient to Upstate Medical University, Syracuse.

■ Crews from Guilfoyle and Jefferson County 911 dispatchers worked together on a separate car/pedestrian accident and a five-vehicle accident on Interstate 81 last winter. Dispatchers Bobbi Simpson, Cindy Pitts, Troy Pitts, Mary Granger, Lindsay Gallo and Paul Renaud were dispatching multiple fire, EMS and law enforcement agencies to the pedestrian accident when they received a call about the five-vehicle crash in the same area.

■ Dr. Maja Lundborg-Gray and Guilfoyle crew members Duane Petrie and Tracie Mason managed the care of a pregnant woman who was involved in a serious motor vehicle accident, after which she was flown to Samaritan in 2009.

Guilfoyle personnel Dave Sherman, Joe Bova, Anthony Kohler, Pat Vincent, Chris Hickey, Holly Hoffert, Chris Weeks, Jake Hollis, Toby Wright, Felix Castro, Jeff Muchinkoff and Craig Pastorino were the EMS responders who were called to the two accident scenes.

Ms. Smith was unable to identify the patients in the incidents, citing confidentiality reasons.

Award winners were nominated by their peers before the board selected them, Ms. Smith said. In the past, individual fire departments and EMS agencies recognized responders, but this is the first time they were recognized by the regional organization, she said.

The award winners "performed some amazing feats in responding to medical emergencies in Jefferson County, and their efforts, as well as the results they achieved, deserve the attention and acclaim of the citizens of Jefferson County," said Lionel H. Hector, secretary of the Jefferson County EMS Advisory Board.