Thursday's Internet Edition, September 09, 2010.
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After 32 years of dedicated service to the citizens of Edwards County, and literally thousands of calls for each of them, Paula Kay Epperson and Pauline Erekson are hanging up their EMT uniforms.
Prior to the formation of the Edwards County Emergency Medical Service in 1977, the only transport to the Edwards County Memorial Hospital was by a white Chevrolet station wagon. Volunteers, with no training and only oxygen as treatment, were the only service that was in Edwards County. Often the driver was the only person that would go to a scene, load the patient, supply them with oxygen and drive them back to the hospital.
In 1976 seeing the need for trained personnel, a small group of people from Rocksprings drove out of town to become the first trained group of ambulance personnel. They included Shirley Capps, Kathy Connell, Neville Smart Jr., Mozelle Cowsert, Irma Galindo, Bennie Piper, Buddy Weaver, Betty Dubose, Maxine Bickerstaff, Dan Harrison, Jr. and Patsy Hutcherson. In December of 1976, training for ambulance drivers was upgraded from no training at all to that of basic first aid.
With these beginnings, the people of Edwards Country realized they needed more than trained ambulance attendants, they needed an ambulance. With much needed help from the citizens through fund raising, the first real ambulance arrived in July of 1978.
With the election of the first officers in 1979, the ambulance service officially became known as the Edwards County Emergency Medical Service. Paula Kay Epperson and Pauline Erekson took their first ECA class in 1979 and became members of the Edwards County EMS.
Since the beginning of the EMS, about 200 people from Edwards County have given their time to the organization but none can compare to the time and knowledge given by Paula Kay and Pauline.
No one knows how hard it is to provide this kind of service to your hometown. You must remember that 90 percent of the time when that call for help comes in, it is someone you know. You have to deal with sick, injured, hurting people as well as death sometimes, and you have to be able to comfort and grieve with family members as well. It takes a very special person to be able to deal with that and for the amount of time these ladies have spent doing this they should be given a medal of honor.
These ladies have also spent countless hours fundraising for equipment that has saved lives and will continue to do so. Without their help we would not have half the tools we have today or the knowledge on how to use them. They have worked so hard that we now have two ‘state of the art’ diesel ambulances and a diesel 4x4 rescue truck.
Words cannot express the gratitude that we owe these two ladies for the service we have today, so please come out to the Edwards County Park Building on April 1st at 7:00 p.m. and say thank you to them and all the people that make up the Edwards County Emergency Medical Service.