Rescue Gift

Although my 50th birthday was almost a month ago, I haven't forgotten the truly wonderful experience it's been, having my birthday wish fulfilled. Today I want to share an email that I received from one of my birthday wish fulfillers, Sheri Wilcox, who is an volunteer EMT who lives in West Virginia:

Good afternoon!  I am not on call tonight, so hopefully will be able to sleep.  :)  I wanted to give you an idea of the calls I had run this month for your birthday wish.

I've run 26 calls this month.  Our squad averages 700 a year.  We're really rural, not super busy, and we don't usually get "major drama" calls.  However, this month those calls included 2 assaults, a forest fire, and my personal favorite, some missing canoers.  That was my favorite call, and I've attached a couple of pictures of my favorite patient from that call.  We had 4 young men who were dumped out of their canoe and stranded on a rock.  They elected to swim to the bank (along with Zeke, the puppy) and then hike to their car.  It was in the low 50's, and they were only wearing swim suits, so we were concerned about temperature loss.  The boys were eventually found by our county swift water team, and brought to us for evaluation.  Since we had enough EMT's for the boys, I took over checking Zeke over and getting him warmed up.  Fur coat or not, that was one tired puppy!  It was a happy ending for all, which is my favorite kind of rescue call.



I feel a deep sense of obligation to volunteer and to try to make my community a better place.  I believe it was Mother Teresa who said that you haven't really lived until you have done something for someone else they cannot do for themselves, and I wholeheartedly agree.

Happy 50th birthday to you!

Sheri Wilcox

Thanks, again, Sheri; this is a gift that keeps on giving, as I smile every time I see these pics, and I'm pretty sure others will, too :)