Today, Tama Ambulance Service Director Duane Backen renews the call for volunteers to join the Tama Ambulance Service.

Backen joins ambulance service and city council member Aaron Haughey, ambulance crew member Mike Haughey, Ambulance Administrator Don Weitzell, and fellow crew members in stressing the need for more help.

The service responded to 709 calls in 2016 with about 30 active members.

-On Feb. 3, The News-Herald was awarded third place for Community Service in the 2017 Iowa Newspaper Association Contest Weekly II Division for efforts to aid in ambulance member recruitment. (Also see the accommodating Tama News-Herald editorial)

Letter to the Editor:

Last Sunday evening (Feb. 5) our ambulance was paged for a call that required a transport beyond Marshalltown or Grinnell. While that crew was tending to that call another page went out requesting a second truck. Tama was unable to assemble a crew (minimum of a driver and 1 EMT). Toledo’s first unit covered the call for us.

Folks, we have about 30 people on our crew, answering calls 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. We need 42 people to have two crews of three, (3 people 12 hours daytime and 3 people 12 hours nighttime, 7 days/week).

That does not include staffing a second truck for second calls. Your ambulance crew is becoming burned out. People are shutting off their pagers after their shift. Terrible, you think?

Well, at least they serve one shift. How many calls do you take? Toledo was able to cover us this time but I believe they are having the same issues we are. We’ve had to cover some of their second unit calls because they couldn’t assemble a second crew. Had their first unit been on a call it is entirely possible there would have been no one to answer this second call.

I’m currently working up to 60 hours a week at my “real job” and still find time to cover at least one and one-half shifts on the ambulance service per week, attend monthly meetings and training, and answer second unit calls when I’m in town. (Just so you know, we don’t staff a second unit. People that answer second unit calls were not on call and have to stop whatever they are doing to answer the call).

We have others that do more, but we keep expecting more and more time from fewer people. These people have families they like to spend time with too.

We need volunteers, particularly EMTS, and especially daytime and weekends. Remember, it takes a minimum of six months to train an EMT. We cannot fix this overnight. We need YOU. The time may not be far off when someone calls for help and there is no one available. Maybe it will be your family. Think about it.

Call the ambulance station or myself to get an application. I’m in the phone book. Please apply, you can do it.

Duane Backen

AEMT

Tama Ambulance Service Director