This week did not seem to distinguish itself with anything other than an endless succession of spring showers, but like almost any other week in the calendar year, it was, by official proclamation, a time of observance for a variety of special causes. Sunday was International Day of Families. Wednesday was Telecommunications Day. The entire week was National Nursing Week and National Road Safety Week, and throughout the month of May we are supposed to be mindful of mental health, cystic fibrosis, foot health, hepatitis, Huntington’s disease, multiple sclerosis, physiotherapy, and speech and hearing. While all these causes are important and deserving of special consideration, we choose this week to focus our attention on National Emergency Medical Services Week, which in some ways touches on all of the above.

EMS providers include certified emergency medical responders, emergency medical technicians, and licensed paramedics. With the exception of the paramedics, here in Newtown, EMS personnel are volunteers, and regardless of whether they get a paycheck or not, all of those called to emergency service here are highly trained and utterly professional in both skill and conduct. To confine our appreciation of them to a single week would be to default on our debt to their 24/7/365 commitment to responding quickly to our most dire calls for help.

It was not always this way. Forty-five years ago, the National Academy of Science documented widespread deficiencies in emergency care throughout the nation. People were transported to hospitals in converted hearses by well-meaning but poorly trained volunteers and delivered to emergency departments where doctors were often on call, not on duty. The resulting NAS report rallied public and political support for the creation of the EMS system we enjoy today and prompted the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration to push for the first federal standards in emergency medical service.

Today, a 911 call brings expert help within minutes. More importantly, it brings some of the best people you will ever meet, in good circumstances or bad, right into your home, your workplace, or any place, familiar or remote, where misfortune finds you. And they will let you know through their actions and words that the worst is over, that your safety is their first and only mission, and that they are your trusted guardians on that first hurried leg of your road to recovery.

Anyone who has made that call knows the power of their consistent calm competence and compassion in turning the frightening uncertainty of sickness and trauma toward hope and health. It is the kind of experience that engenders appreciation, not for just a week, but for a lifetime.

If you would like to learn more about the local EMS system and how you can help as a volunteer or through financial support, call 203-270-4380 or e-mail info@newtownambulancect.org.