Celebrating EMS Week: Joe & Lilah Share Their Stories
May 17-23 is EMS Week, a time to shine a light on the important care provided by emergency medical services professionals across the nation.
We're fortunate to have a terrific team at South Shore Health EMS, a group that includes EMTs, paramedics, Mobile Integrated Health (MIH) colleagues, and other emergency services personnel.
As part of EMS Week, we're proud to share the stories and perspectives of two of our EMS colleagues: Joe, a paramedic, and Lilah, an EMT.
"A Personal Thing" and Providing a High Level of Care
Joe, a paramedic with South Shore Health EMS, has 25 years of experience in the EMS field, including eight as a paramedic with our EMS Team.
As a paramedic, Joe works on our Town of Weymouth EMS ambulances, which respond to 9-1-1 calls and provide advanced life support (ALS) interventions to patients.
“Paramedics provide a high level of care," Joe explained. "When we show up, we’re clinicians: we do full assessments and provide treatments that are appropriate for what we’re bringing to the Emergency Department.”
“We can place breathing tubes, provide electrical therapy, and give a variety of medications," he continued. "We carry 40-50 different medications on our ambulances.”
Joe and his colleagues provide timely, expert care and comfort during stressful situations, as they are often the first caregivers a patient encounters during an emergency.
A Quincy resident, Joe has spent the majority of his career caring for patients on the South Shore and says residents of Weymouth and surrounding towns are in good hands.
“It’s a personal thing,” he said. “I know that the people here are going to take good care of everyone who lives in this town, including my family. We have good quality in this whole region, between our service and the surrounding cities and towns. We have good providers who are going to show up to help.”
A Community Feel and an Introduction to Healthcare
Lilah has been an EMT with us for three years, caring for patients on both transport ambulances and our emergency services ambulances.
“Being hospital-based is really cool because we get to do a little bit of everything,” she explained. “We transport patients from the Hospital, we work with Boston MedFlight, we work with the NICU, we respond to calls in the community.”
Through her role as an EMT, Lilah has gained valuable experience in a number of different aspects of patient care.
"I knew I really wanted to go into medicine, but I had a lot of different interests and wanted to explore them," she said. "EMS seemed like it would give me the opportunity to experience different things and see what I like to do and where I want to fit in healthcare.”
That experience that will serve her well as she begins medical school this summer.
“There’s treating a disease and then there’s treating people…those are two very different things,” she said. “EMS does a really good job teaching you how to treat a person. You’re one of the first people they see in an emergency or one of the last when leaving the hospital. You need to make that positive impression to help them feel safe and comfortable.”
A Weymouth native, Lilah has always placed an emphasis on giving back to her community – whether by volunteering at local organizations or by caring for her community in her current role.
“Being from the town, then doing community service in the town to eventually working here is a really nice way to mesh it all together,” she said.
