The Buffalo News
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Lance Smeal has been in plenty of tense situations over his three-decade career responding to emergency calls in Niagara Falls. If warranted, he will turn to one of his favorite topics, the Buffalo Bills, to loosen the mood and help patients and their loved ones feel more comfortable in difficult moments.
That’s what he did one evening last year, when he responded to a call for a 2-year-old having difficulty breathing. While he evaluated the toddler, who ended up being OK, Smeal also calmed and reassured the older brother by talking about their shared love of the Bills. Before Smeal left, he took his watch off his wrist and gave it to the toddler’s older brother.
“It was my Buffalo Bills watch, and I just gave it to him,” said Smeal, an advanced emergency medical technician and field training officer with American Medical Response. “I thought that was the end of it.”
But Smeal’s kindness did not go unnoticed, and the 54-year-old Lockport resident will be honored next month at the American Ambulance Association Stars of Life awards ceremony in Washington, D.C. The Stars of Life program honors emergency medical services professionals across the country who “have gone above and beyond the call of duty in service to their communities or the EMS profession.” Smeal is one of 33 Stars of Life this year from Global Medical Response, AMR’s corporate parent.
“This award is among the highest honors an EMS professional can receive,” said AMR Operations Manager Eric Conley, who called Smeal “a great clinician and a better human being.”
Smeal was not seeking public attention through his interaction with the boy that evening and, in fact, is a little uncomfortable in the spotlight. He said he simply enjoys talking to patients, particularly when the Bills come up.
“It’s nice to be recognized,” Smeal said. “We’re a dedicated, passionate bunch, and there are thousands that do this, day in and day out, and just help the community. There’s so many that should be honored.”
EMS can be a difficult, emotionally draining profession. In fact, AMR and other EMS providers are grappling with staffing challenges in what can be a high-turnover field. Further, the number of certified EMS providers in New York State is now less than 65,000, a drop from 80,000 just five years ago. AMR has about 350 EMTs, paramedics, dispatchers and support staff serving Erie and Niagara counties, but the company has said it needs more employees.
Thirty-one years into his career, Smeal said he’s never thought about doing anything else.
“This is what I was meant to do,” he said.
‘I like your watch’
The call came in the evening of March 31, 2023, in Niagara Falls.
Smeal and his AMR crew quickly responded, as did the Niagara Falls Fire Department.
Upon arrival, Smeal immediately assessed the 2-year-old, who was surrounded by his grandmother, Angela Rubin, and his family, including his 12-year-old older brother, Joey.
As Smeal and the family realized the 2-year-old was going to be OK, Joey walked up to Smeal, making sure he wasn’t too busy at that moment, and politely said: “Excuse me, sir, I like your watch.”
On Smeal’s wrist: a Buffalo Bills-themed Timex watch with blue straps.
Smeal, a Bills season ticket holder, talked to Joey about the team, its players and how they thought the Bills were going to do that season.
After evaluating the 2-year-old, Smeal reviewed options with the family, who decided they would take the toddler to the emergency room.
Smeal returned to the ambulance and, once the Fire Department left, made one last trip into the house. As the family prepared to go to the hospital, Smeal gave his watch to Joey, who uttered a “thank you” but otherwise stared at Smeal, speechless.
Smeal later told his wife, who had given him the watch for Christmas just a couple of months earlier.
“She was completely OK with it,” he said.
‘Ambulance man’
At 11:58 a.m. the next day, April 1, 2023, Rubin posted on Facebook that her 2-year-old grandson was doing well but also to thank the Fire Department and “the ambulance man.” She sought to find him so Joey could more fully thank him.
“I would like to find this man so that he can thank him again now that he is not in shock!” Rubin wrote. “The world does still have good people out there.”
At 2:49 p.m. that day, Deborah L. Johnson commented and told Rubin the man’s identity: “our friend, our co-worker, the best AMR has to offer, Lance Smeal .”
A couple of weeks went by. Then one day, Rubin and her grandchildren showed up to AMR’s Niagara Falls quarters, where they met Smeal.
Knowing he might meet the family again at some point, Smeal had a No. 40 Von Miller jersey waiting for them to take home.
Joey also had a surprise for Smeal: a handwritten thank-you letter.
“I will take very good care of the watch,” Joey wrote in the letter, shared on Facebook by Niagara Action. “People don’t do nice things anymore for kids. You are the best medic in the world!”
In the letter, Joey also informed Smeal that he was a fan of the Bills and the Chargers. Smeal thinks the watch and the jersey could make Joey a full-time Bills fan.
“You’ve got to get them in to the (Bills) Mafia when they’re young,” Smeal said. “You can’t be a lifelong Bills fan if you don’t start young.”
‘My one-year plan’
Smeal, a 1990 Lewiston-Porter graduate, went to college for physical education, but he wasn’t sure if that was the right path for him.
His cousin, an EMS supervisor, suggested to an uncertain Smeal: “You know what, why don’t you try this for a bit?”
“Originally, this was my one-year plan, but I’ve been here 31 years,” Smeal said. “I love it, and I love going to work every day.”
Smeal started with LaSalle Ambulance, which was acquired in the mid-1990s by Rural/Metro, which was then acquired about a decade ago by AMR.
Amid the changes, Smeal has worked all 31 years in Niagara Falls, where he works the 5:30 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. shift. After all these years, Smeal said he knows everyone in the Fire Department, the Police Department, the hospitals and even the local 7-Eleven workers. But he still gets to meet new people every shift, responding to anywhere from two to 10 calls a night.
Sometimes, Smeal meets people at their worst moments, but he tries to leave a positive impression on patients in those 20 to 25 minutes. That’s important, he said, because patients will remember the interaction.
“If you make it a positive one, that helps,” he said, “because a year from now, I go into a house and the mom’s sick and she’s panicking. She doesn’t want to leave, and her stress level is so high. And then you have a son going, ‘Mom, he took care of me two years ago. He’s a good guy.’ Well, that immediately reduces her stress level.”
And he’ll keep talking about the Bills with patients when the moment arises, using the team to ease the tension in stressful moments and to connect with people. And if he sees Miami Dolphins items in a house, he may drop a well-timed, “Whoa, what is that?”
If the Super Bowl comes up in conversation, he may even tell some patients about his license plate: PLS1SB.
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