Legal issues cast shadow over volunteer's work

To The Eagle:

I do not know the Cathlamet mayor, nor the accused former firefighter. I do, however, have knowledge and expertise through three decades of Emergency Medicine practice at St. John Medical Center regarding the department's ambulance personnel and know what the community at large could not. The level of training and skill of the Nurse/Paramedics and EMTs has been unusual for a community this size, and their success has been unparalleled. I cite as an example a patient whom they successfully resuscitated from out of hospital cardiac arrest on several different occasions. A single such successful resuscitation is praiseworthy but so many on the same patient is unheard of.

Their only reward has been internal. Their gift to the community has been enormous. Excellence unrewarded tends to disappear and the community needs to know what would be at stake if these providers quit through lack of support.

What a tragedy that a politician lacking the skills needed to promote the overall wellbeing of the populace of his community could place all at such risk.

Gary E. Penner, M.D.

Longview