GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- Today marks the 44th anniversary of the first transport from Life EMS Ambulance. The company's president and C-E-O, Mark Meijer, remembers it well.
"I do. Yours truly was one of the paramedics on the transport. One of our other founding paramedics - our executive vice president, Ken Morris - was the dispatcher at the time. For perspective, we were transporting a patient from the Intensive Care Unit at Butterworth Hospital to what was then the only CAT scanner in all of West Michigan," Meijer said on West Michigan's Morning News.
That CAT scanner was located in a physician's office in downtown Grand Rapids.
Meijer said on West Michigan's Morning News that more than 500 of the Life E-M-S team will celebrate its 44th anniversary Saturday by attending the Grand Rapids Griffins' game against the Texas Stars.
Meijer was asked what motivates him after all these years. He said it is the impact paramedics can have on people's lives.
"You just can't replicate that, and it's such a great feeling. There are plenty of challenges, as we know, and it's not an easy occupation. But our folks bring the compassion part of skill and compassion that we're just so proud of," Meijer said.
He added that empathy and compassion have to be ingrained in someone going into that line of work.
To that end, he said Life EMS has a great training program for paramedics and Emergency Medical Technicians.
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