By Ava Ronning
Skagit Valley Herald
SKAGIT COUNTY, Wash. — Skagit County was the third area in the state to have paramedics, following Seattle and Bellingham. The first paramedics in the county received their training in 1977 and were hired in 1978.
The early days of Skagit EMS
Dennis Taylor, Jay Fallihee and David Montague were some of the first paramedics hired to serve the county, and they often worked together. The three credited Dr. Michael Copass as a key founder of the Northwest EMS system.
All three men are retired RN paramedics. Fallihee worked primarily out of United General Hospital, while Taylor and Montague worked mainly at Skagit Valley Hospital.
Copass, who was the director of EMS at Harborview Medical Center, created Medic One in Seattle and founded Airlift NW, passed away this year on July 26. The Medic One program is still regarded as a prominent training program for paramedics.
Dr. Ronald Richeson was an emergency department physician at Skagit Valley Hospital and became part of the board of trustees, officers and committee chairmen for the Skagit-Stanwood-Camano EMS Council in 1974. The EMS council was formed for public education, training for emergency personnel and improving communications between emergency health care agencies.
“Everybody worked together, came together, and it was the vision of people like Richeson that got it started and got it moving to where it is today,” Taylor said.
System structure
The physicians who trained Taylor, Fallihee and Montague were initially hesitant about training the paramedics, as the concept of a paramedic was new at the time, but they quickly developed a close, trusting and working relationship.
Having that strong relationship with emergency room physicians is something Montague said gave him confidence early in his career.
It was unique to Skagit that the paramedics were housed in the hospital and part of that system because at the time, Bellingham and Seattle paramedics were based at fire stations. The emergency room doctors got to know the paramedics and taught them how to do several medical procedures should they ever need to.
Now, paramedics in Skagit County work closely with the fire departments and police.
“I think that it’s a similar relationship to what we were experiencing with the (doctors),” Fallihee said.
“I’m impressed by the way the fire departments now are being proactive about patients and their conditions at home to avoid having to go through the 911 system,” Montague said.
All three men feel a strong connection to the work they did, even though some of them found themselves in their line of work in non-linear ways.
“You never know what’s going to happen to change your life,” Fallihee said.
District 14 Fire Chief David Skrinde said the overall practices haven’t changed much since the industry’s beginnings, but the industry continues to develop with the influences of technology, changing approaches to medicine and dealing with mental health.
Honoring past and present first responders
The Skagit County First Responder Foundation is an organization that Skrinde and Skagit County Sheriff Don McDermott founded in 2023. Its goal is to “acknowledge the excellence, courage and integrity of all first responders in Skagit County by recognizing their dedication to public service,” according to the organization’s Facebook page.
The foundation’s first event was a First Responder’s BBQ held at the Alger Community Hall in September. Skrinde plans to continue events like these to honor first responders in the coming years, including the small corps of paramedics, such as Taylor, Fallihee and Montague, who started in the 1970s.
“Underlying is a great need for recruitment and retention in our fields of first responders. ... We thought if we could also start bringing back, starting with younger generations, pride in serving whether it’s fire or law, dispatch, that this could be a way this foundation could give back as well,” said McDermott.
The foundation’s upcoming events and related notices to honor first responders will be posted on the Skagit County First Responders Foundation Facebook page.
(c)2024 the Skagit Valley Herald (Mount Vernon, Wash.)
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