Arthur Gasparrini, my old partner from over twenty years ago, passed away this week at the age of 80. I’d lost touch with many years ago, only occasionally hearing updates. About ten years ago, I’d heard he’d had a stroke and was living in Florida. The obituary said he was living in Indiana. He was…
Category: obituaries
Joe Magarac, Man of Steel
When I was a new paramedic, I wanted to be the greatest paramedic ever. I took pride in never missing work. When I was at work, if I got a late call, I didn’t care. I welcomed it in fact. Cardiac arrest five minutes before my out time, send me! I took as many overtime…
Thanksgiving
I wrote this post on Thanksgiving 2005. *** It’s Thanksgiving morning. I awake at 5:10, shower and dress, then open up the garage door to see a couple inches of snow on the ground. It’s beautiful, but I hate winter, hate the cold weather, hate driving in snow. When I get to the base, I can see…
An EMT
A number of winters ago, I responded for the “welfare check” in a local apartment building. Carrying my gear I trudged through the snow to the door where the super met us and we walked through the bare lobby. He told us “his hands and feet are all blue.” By the way he said it,…
Mortal Men
Below is an excerpt from my novel, Mortal Men: Paramedics on the Streets of Hartford, that came out in 2012, and is still available on Kindle. In the book, while the main characters had fictional names, I used the names of real people who worked the streets as extras. I did it because I wanted…
Apparition
Tim was working for the company when I started. As tall as me and twice as broad, he was a strong EMT — a good lifter, quiet sense of humor, hard worker, gentle with patients. And if he was standing behind you, no one would think of causing trouble. One night fifteen years ago, he…
Christian Schmeck
Christian Schmeck passed away a few days ago at 59. I saw his obituary posted in the EMS room at a local hospital. I suspect most of the newer EMTs who saw it didn’t know who he was. I first met Chris over twenty years ago when I worked at the state health department. He…
Ghost Blood
A medic who used to work for us a decade ago died the other day. He hadn’t yet turned fifty. He worked as a medic for many years, but then got hurt and had to find other work. He’d had some hardships and hadn’t been particularly healthy of late. We weren’t close, but when I…