Story from an "Old Timer"

You think things are bad now? You should have been around 30 odd years ago. Back in the days when Richie Serino was an "aide" wearing a "Doctors Suit", Dick "Woody" Forest was an ambulance jockey in his POLICE uniform and Carl Weinstein thought he WAS a Paramedic. I had the pleasure of working with all of them and many, many more great people at H&H and I love them all.

That was back in the days when H&H was just emerging into EMS. Up until that time they were doing "transfers" to the San on River Street and down to the Island (Long Island). They'd take a nut-cake out to Morton Street or do a fire stand-by but, most of the emergency work was performed in the back of a "paddy wagon" usually with the two cops up front. Well, somewhere around 1973 things started to change.

Emergency Medicine and EMT's were starting to come into being, especially in Boston. The City realized that they would have to conform to some "higher" standards but had no resources to accomplish that task. So, they trained some of the younger "aides" as EMT's but didn't have nearly enough to staff the wagons. That was when they turned to some of the up and coming "stars" of EMS at the Boston Ambulance Squad. At the time the Squad had more EMT's probably than any other ambulance service in the area and many of the members went to work for H&H, including myself. Many of these EMT's are still at BEMS today. One of them now runs the show.

Now, the City has all of these young hot-shots who are rarin' to go but what do they have to put them in? Rattle-traps!! You think the ambulances of today are pieces of shit, you shoulda been there back then. I know you have heard stories of ambulances being held together with coat-hangers and adhesive tape......... BELIEVE THEM. You might have even been there to ride in one or two. Tommy Kenney and I worked District 2 one night and they put us in old A-4 which was a one of a kind International. What a hunk of junk. The exhaust fumes were so bad that we duct taped two O2 lines, one to each side of the ambulance, and wore the masks as we drove past the Main. Bonavita, Walter Bonavita, our fearless leader at the time, a real winner he was, had a fit. He sent Owen Hennessey over to the "Accident Floor" to tell us to remove them IMMEDIATELY. Needless to say, before we left the hospital we were riding in one of the "new" Modular ambulances. The one that sat in front of City Hall during the day tour.

Things were just as hard back then as they are probably today. The supplies in our ambulances consisted of a small cabinet for bandages and the like, an oxygen tank and a first aid kit. If you were lucky you had an ambu-bag. Some of the lights worked, some of the sirens worked, both did not work on most of the ambulances. And, until several of us designed two "new" rigs for the City, #133 and #140, there was no A/C in any of the ambulances. Try sitting outside at the then sattelites, in the middle of July and August, with no A/C. It was brutal. We didn't have Heat Emegencies then. And, we put up with the same bull-shit patients that you folks put up with today.

We did the drunks, the "man-down" calls, the third, fourth, fifth and higher lug jobs. Try lugging a pregnant woman down 25 stories, DURING A FIRE. Danny White and I did just that over at the old nurses dorm in the South Tower. And we did the other suck calls like the ear aches, the back aches and the ass aches. One night we transported a woman from Seaver Street to the BCH so she could visit her husband who was a patient on one of the wards. She didn't have any money for a cab so she called us. The bosses told us, "If she wants to go to the hospital, TAKE HER". So we did. It backfired though because every time we went back to that particular apartment building we did what the cabbies do, we pulled up, tooted the horn and waited for the "fare" to come out. Screw Em'. Like I said, nuthin's changed. We did it, you're doing it and the Brothers and Sisters who come after us will be doing the same thing.

Now, as in all good organizations, we would all gather after our experiences and critique the calls and how we handled them and what we could do the better handle them in the future. This was usually done at J.J. Foley's, "mind the time people, mind the time", or at several other strategically located "watering holes". Most of ours were done at Jimmy's Cafe on Stoughton Street in Uphams Corner. It was not unusual to walk in there any morning of the week and find six or more EMT's sitting there. Woody would be there, his partner, Kenney Hartford, myself and Phil Lucier, Tom Kenney, Alan Tatelbaum, and others. Some of the other guys like Timmy Hayes would hit the Powerhouse in Southie and there was a little place at South Station, at Summer and High Streets we'd go to on occassion but I'll be damned if I can remember the name. And, of course, Castle Island in the summertime. Hell, we even did Castle Island in the wintertime.

So many good EMT's and Medics have come and gone from EMS, so many are still there doing what they do best, serving. You are now serving and many will come and serve after you. We thought we had it rough, I'm sure that there are many more improvements that are needed now and it is rough for you as well. And those who come after you will experience the same feelings, the same frustrations but, they will also experience the same satisfaction of knowing that they are doing the best possible job they can do with what they have available to them. We did it, you are doing it and they WILL do it too. I am very proud to have served as a Boston EMT and I am equally as proud of the men and women I had the pleasure of working with. Stay safe out there Brothers and Sisters.

Yours,

Jim O'Neill, Chief

Suwannee County Fire Dist.

19359 76th Street

Live Oak, FL 32060

Board Member, District 2

Suwannee County Fire

Governing Board

80th Terrace

Live Oak, FL 32060


Photo of WFD E-2 courtesy of wellesleypdphoto.com