By Shelbie Watts, EMS1 Editorial Assistant
Aside from heroically saving lives and rescuing people from dangerous situations in 2018, EMS providers also used their time to perform some pretty inredible acts of kindness in an effort to bring happiness to others.
From fulfilling dying wishes to finishing house work, here are the top 10 heartwarming stories from the EMS industry in 2018.
10. Responders finish elderly man’s attic work after rescuing him from fall
A group of Kansas City Fire Department responders who rescued Ken Hargis after he fell while installing insulation in his attic, stayed behind to finish his project while he was transported to the hospital.
9. EMS agency raises money to pay for infant’s funeral
Ryan Lang, chief of Nine Mile Rescue Squad in North Carolina, created a GoFundMe account to help a volunteer rescue squad member pay for his nephew’s funeral after he found out his colleague was planning on paying for the funeral himself.
8. First responders surprise young hit-and-run victim with new bike
EMS providers, firefighters and police officers in Youngstown, Ohio, showed up in ambulances, fire trucks and cruisers to deliver a new bike to 8-year-old Jenciel Filero, whose own bike was destroyed when he was hit by a vehicle.
7. Paramedics help grant veteran’s dying wish to see ‘Star Wars’
First responders in Bedford, New Hampshire transported Air Force veteran and avid “Star Wars” fan Ron Villemaire to a movie theater for a private showing of “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” before he died of cancer at a nursing home.
6. EMS agency transports 100-year-old woman to state fair
Catherine Krause was determined to make it to the Wisconsin State Fair for the 80th time, despite injuring her ankle on her birthday, so Bell Ambulance paramedics transported her to the event. Director of Client Services Scott Mickelsen said it was nice to be there on “someone’s best day,” which is usually the opposite of what paramedics experience.
5. Paramedics buy homeless man coat after cutting his clothes off for treatment
Yorkshire Ambulance Service paramedics Leilah Nolan and Tom Thackray-Collier responded to a call about a homeless man and had to cut off his clothing to treat him. Later, the two went to a store and purchased the man newclothes so he could stay warm in the cold.
4. EMS providers take disabled teen trick-or-treating as honorary EMT
Austin Wildnauer, who is bound to a wheelchair, went trick-or-treating for the first time in years, thanks to a Swansea, Massachusetts EMS crew, who picked him up in their ambulance and gave him an honorary EMT costume.
3. Firefighter-paramedic returns late firefighter’s helmet to widow
Santa Rosa, California, firefighter-paramedic Scott Moder and several of his colleagues presented 98-year-old Jo Miller with her late husband Ben’s helmet after his mother found the helmet online and gifted it to him. She had last seen the helmet just before Ben retired 30 years ago.
2. EMTs grant dying woman’s final wish to see lighthouse
An avid lighthouse fan, hospice patient Laura Mullins wanted to see the Scituate Lighthouse before she died, so Brewster Ambulance Service EMTs Brian Costa and Era Koroveshi drove the ambulance for over an hour to fulfill her wish.
1. Paramedics grant dying man’s wish for McDonald’s sundae
Australian paramedics Kate Hanafy and Hanna Hoswell asked hospice patient Ron McCartney what he wanted to eat if he could have anything as they transported him to palliative care. The paramedics granted his wish for a caramel sundae by stopping at McDonald’s, and he ate it with “a big smile on his face.”