S Proclamation Emergency Medical Service Week and Recognition of EMS Agencies’ Achievements

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4 MEMORANDUM To: Rod Visser, Assistant County Manager From: Kent McKenzie, Emergency Medical Services Director Date: April 29, 2002 Re: Recognition of EMS Performance Achievements From time to time, personnel in the Orange County Emergency Medical Service System are privileged to have the opportunity to use their extensive training and equipment to make a real difference in the life of a resident or visitor. In many cases, the caring and compassionate work done by personnel in the system is overlooked. In a few rare instances, individual citizens or visitors provide letters or phone calls expressing their gratitude to specific EMS personnel and to the system at large. Sometimes, by design or providence, personnel are able to revive persons who have suffered complete cardiac and respiratory arrest; that is, people who are clinically dead. A letter from the family of one such person, a young man just 19 years old, was circulated to the BOCC in the recent past. This young man suffered a cardiac arrest just before Christmas of 2000, and Orange County's Emergency Medical Services System was activated. On that chilly December day, telecommunicators, firefighters, paramedics, emergency medical technicians, nurses, and physicians within the system were all involved in caring for this young man and his family. As a result of the coordinated work of this professional team, his heartbeat was restored and the young man now has the rest of his life to look forward to. It is important to recognize that while the actions of the specific people who revived this young man did save his life, their actions do not make those individual team members more valuable or honorable than others in the system. All members of the system are capable of providing care that makes a difference in an individual's life, and it is important to recognize all members of Orange County's Emergency Medical Services System. Media coverage of last September's terrorist attacks focused public attention on the specific acts of courage that occurred during responses to those events. Although the public's focus has been on those responders who died doing their jobs, many other admirable acts of courage by emergency services personnel across the country and around the world go unwitnessed and unrecognized every day. During the annual national Emergency Medical Services week, all citizens are encouraged to remember and thank the many personnel who stand in service around the world. To specifically recognize some of the many Emergency Medical Services personnel in Orange County at the BOCC's May 8, 2002 meeting, staff from the county's Department of Emergency Management Services will identify personnel from various EMS system agencies for recognition and for presentation of certificates of appreciation to the agencies.