Town Topics
26 August 1981

Willing to Pay

To the Editor of Town Topics;

It is shocking that such a life-support system as the Princeton First Aid and Rescue Squad should have to depend on donations and precarious municipal budgets. I cannot believe that a community like Princeton is unable or unwilling to support such a service. Perhaps what the Rescue Squad does around the clock is not fully understood and appreciated. Yet anyone can need its help at any time.

I certainly never thought it would happen to me. Yet, last month when I had what seemed like classic symptoms of a heart attack, our doctor sent the First Aid and Rescue Squad to take me to the Emergency Room. It arrived promptly. Kevin Kelty checked my vital signs and attached a heart monitor. On his portable phone he called the hospital and reported my condition. The other four well-trained members of the Squad transferred me to the ambulance. On the way Kevin Kelty watched the monitor, kept the hospital in touch with my condition, and was prepared to give any emergency treatment necessary.

From the time he arrived at our house until he left me with our doctor, Kevin Kelty was at my side. Consequently in the Emergency Department the nurses and laboratory technicians were standing by ready with tests, our doctor had already arranged for a room in Special Care, and before my husband left for home our doctor was able to give him the results of the tests, and could assure him that I was all right. The disturbance turned out to be something other than a heart attack. But if it had been, I’m sure that without this care I might not have had a chance to survive.

Why should not such a service be respected and paid for as any other professional service is paid for? We would gladly have seen the charges on our Emergency Room hospital bill. Undoubtedly those charges would be repaid by medicare and medicaid for most users. Isn’t there some way of doing this — and soon? We cannot afford any curtailment of the service nor the loss of two valuable paramedics, without whom there would be no service. The healthiest man or woman in Princeton cannot predict at what moment his or her life may depend on the speedy and professional services of the First Aid and Rescue Squad.

JULIA WEBER GORDON
117 Crestview Drive