By Mary Stewart

The Selma Times-Journal

Vaughan Regional Medical Center celebrated EMS week with a barbecue honoring paramedics and other first responders.

Though several were called away to duty, all EMS workers appreciated the gesture from the hospital.

Keith Bradley, a former paramedic and now nurse at the hospital, was grilling hamburgers and hotdogs. He and the hospital staff had the idea for the picnic to show the EMS workers how much they were appreciated.

“[The EMS workers] work out in the field. We would try to do something to help them out and show them how much we really appreciate them bringing the patients here,” Bradley said.

“The biggest thing is just to show these guys we appreciate them.”

Wendy Molumphy, a nursing student, came to help with the lunch because she knows how important the EMS teams are to the hospital.

“The paramedics are the ones that keep that patient safe on the way to the hospital. They are the ones who can actually keep that patient alive,” Molumphy said.

“So, you’ve got to count on them.”

Doug Jones, a paramedic, said hospital staff is like extended family to him.

“We really appreciate the fact that they are doing this for us. We try to do something for them during nurses’ week and medical staff week,” he said.

Jones has been a paramedic for 18 years and is also a firefighter.

He said he chose to be a paramedic because it’s a family tradition to serve people.

“My family has always been the type of family that we’ve always given back to the community in whatever sense we could,” he said.

“We’ve always been first to respond, even as a volunteer firefighter growing up, rescue squad and in a natural disaster to help people in a time of need.”

Andrea Owens, who is training to be a paramedic now, agrees that her servant heart came from her family.

“I prayed about this job for about 3 years to make sure it was something I wanted to do and finally I got the instinct that I needed to apply for school,” she said.

Both Jones and Owens love the comradery that comes along with this profession.

“This is an extended family. We have certain people we enjoy working with, but when it comes to our management our personal that we work with, you become a big family,” Jones said.

“You know what goes on in their lives, you understand their children, and they understand things going on with your children. It’s the 24-hour crews, that are away from their families for that time, that we just have that special bond because we spend more time with them than we do our own family.”

Bradley sums it up with, “They save lives daily, that’s what they do. They serve.”