Honoring the brave who have fallen

A 58-year-old man died Sunday in Detroit, MI. after rescuing a 7-year-old boy who fell into a water-filled hole. The boy was playing on Sunday at a home construction site when he fell into the foundation pit that was being dug for the basement. Garrett Townsend who lived nearby in the housing development jumped in to rescue the child but was unable to climb the muddy sides of the pit to pull himself out of the water. He did not survive however he managed to rescue the child who is doing well. (story by the Associated Press http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/26/us/26brfs-MANDIESAFTER_BRF.html)

Today we honor those who have given their lives for us. We thank all the brave men and women around the world giving their lives each day to protect us and keep us free. We thank every police officer and every fire-fighter and EMS-person who has given their life to keep us alive and safe. But today we cannot forget to thank Garrett Townsend and everyone else like him who probably would have never considered themselves to be particularly brave or to be a hero ...but when a child's life was at stake, made the ultimate sacrifice.

Garrett, we will remember you when we honor the brave who have fallen.

Saving a Baby...All in a Day's Work

On Thursday May 14th, Mathew Cook and Rafael Marrero, two medics working the graveyard shift in lower Manhattan saved a life. That alone was news to celebrate. What made it truly remarkable was that the life they saved was that of a baby girl born 5 months premature and weighing less than a pound.

The call they received at 7am that Thursday morning was for a woman, 36 years old and four months pregnant who was on her way to the hospital, in severe pain. While in the car things progressed from bad to worse...the dispatcher told the medics they were responding to a likely miscarriage. Upon arrival they proceeded to deliver the child with care. And although they thought it was too late, they wrapped the child in blankets, cut the umbilical cord and flicked an unbelievably tiny foot to stimulate breathing. The little girl let out one gasp and started to cry. ...and then, so did her mother.

As caretaker of this blog, and co-founder of a company whose goal is to make it safer for little kids to travel on ambulances, I am often critical of the slow adoption rates I see for new technology in this industry. But what I am never critical of is the job the men and women do everyday who put on an EMS uniform, go out in the field and save lives...because the results speak for themselves. EMS is an unbelievably demanding career. And like so many other individuals to whom we entrust the care and safe-keeping of our families, they are often underpaid and rarely recognized.

A friend of mine who spent many years in the industry, recently told me not to call them heroes. Apparently it wasn't the right use of the word because what he did wasn't especially heroic...it was just part of his job. Well maybe I was quiet then, but now I'd like to take a moment to disagree. When Mathew Cook said that "That was it. She just started to breathe, then starts to cry, it's a great feeling,"...I have to admit it...I was more than a little impressed. And maybe saving that baby's life was all in a day's work, but to me, it was 100% my kind of hero.

Oh...and before I forget ...welcome to the world little girl :)

(Original Story by Peter N. Spencer, Staten Island Advance

http://www.silive.com/news/advance/index.ssf?/base/news/1242648008280010.xml&coll=1)