Reunion After Accident

The Springs Fire District was grappling last summer with whether to hire paid emergency medical responders, an issue every other district on the South Fork had already faced, when the alarm sounded. It was the middle of the night, and the dedicated squad of volunteers on duty quickly sprang into action, heading to a trauma call they understood would be difficult, as motorcycle accidents often are.

On the way, they discussed what their priorities would be once they got to Hog Creek Road and whether to put the Suffolk County medevac helicopter on standby. What they found “wasn’t good,” said David Baumrind, the volunteer paramedic leading the squad, which included Anna Nunez, an emergency medical technician, Pat Harden, and Leander Arnold as the driver. 

It was June 19, 2015. The patient, an 18-year-old who had been thrown from his Honda motorcycle after hitting a deer at about 1:25 a.m., had an obvious head injury. “He was posturing. There was a lot of blood. He looked very unstable,” and managing his airway had been difficult, Mr. Baumrind said. The crew did what it could to stabilize him and get him to Stony Brook University Hospital, a level-one trauma center, as quickly as possible.

Like many patients before and since, the patient was airlifted to Stony Brook under the care of flight paramedics, and the Springs crew headed back to bed. In the coming days, Mr. Baumrind tried to find out how the young man had fared. He had had a traumatic brain injury and the prognosis was not good.

Mr. Baumrind was working one of his shifts at the Springs Firehouse on May 5 — he had been hired in February to lead a paid paramedic program — when he got a surprise visit: Camaron Cassidy arrived with a family friend, Lizz Salaway, looking to meet and thank the people who he said “saved my life.”

“I really wasn’t sure what had happened up until the day he walked in,” Mr. Baumrind said.

Mr. Cassidy had spent two weeks in a medically induced coma and several months at the Helen Hayes Hospital, a nationally recognized physical rehabilitation center in Haverstraw, N.Y. “It’s been a journey,” Ms. Salaway said.

“David was truly surprised to see him alive, let alone doing so well,” Ms. Salaway said. As Mr. Cassidy put it, he had “recovered past the point of where doctors told me.” Doctors said the immediate quality care he had received made a difference.

“I did my training, but I certainly didn’t do anything magical,” Mr. Baumrind said. “I was very proud of the crew I had. Really, it couldn’t have happened without them.” Mr. Baumrind said meeting Mr. Cassidy was “just about the best experience I’ve had in my E.M.S. career to see how he was doing. That will stick through with me the rest of my life.” He said he was “honored to have any part in his recovery.”

According to the East Hampton Town police report of the accident, Mr. Cassidy and his passenger, Matthew T. Menold, also 18, had been leaving a friend’s house when it occurred. Mr. Menold also was thrown from the motorcycle. Taken to Southampton Hospital, he was expected to make a full recovery. At the time, police said it did not appear speed was a factor in the crash. No charges were filed. 

Mr. Cassidy’s family has made a sizable donation to the Springs Fire Department to show appreciation for the volunteers, which went into the ambulance equipment fund. “As a department, we do not buy T-shirts and what have you,” Patrick Glennon said. Instead, the chairman of the district’s board of commissioners said, it goes toward improving the level of care. Such donations, in a community that struggles more than most on the South Fork with high taxes, go a long way.

Though the money raised by taxes is what pays for the paramedic program, finding $100,000 in its 2016 budget to hire a professional was no small feat. The commissioners had been resistant due to the department’s low call volume — about 430 a year — while surrounding districts, which had many more calls, made the shift to a partially paid system during the past three years.

However, as volunteers continued to struggle to answer daytime alarms and officials in neighboring districts raised concern over the number of times Springs needed assistance to answer calls, the commissioners decided they had no choice.

Due to a state law that prohibits volunteers from filling paid positions in the same organization, Mr. Baumrind had to resign to head the program. Mr. Glennon said the district couldn’t be more pleased with the job he has done. “Everybody thinks it’s going beautifully,” he said.

The Springs program is laid out differently than in most neighboring districts. In Springs, the paramedic on duty responds to calls in a fully equipped ambulance once a volunteer driver arrives, as opposed to using a first responder’s vehicle equipped with advanced life support equipment. It was a decision based on the money available at the time, and not one the district regrets.

Mr. Baumrind and Mr. Glennon said calls are getting answered quickly; on average, the ambulance is en route within three minutes. “I can’t remember too many times where I’ve pulled the ambulance out of the firehouse and the driver wasn’t pulling up,” Mr. Baumrind said, explaining that drivers often were retirees who lived nearby.

A paid provider is now on duty every day from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m., with the day split into two shifts. Advanced life support providers have covered 13 of the 14 shifts each week, and an emergency medical technician with 10 years’ experience covers the remaining shift.

Getting experienced personnel has not been a problem, Mr. Glennon said, even though the district pays $18 an hour, while districts nearby pay $22 to $25.

The volunteers have stepped up as well, Mr. Glennon said, adding that Mr. Baumrind understands volunteers are an integral part of the system and that “one of the most important things is teamwork.”

Now Springs, which was behind the curve not so long ago, could be an innovator. Mr. Baumrind has put together a proposal with regard to paid personnel and the mutual aid system, which the district has taken to its neighbors in East Hampton and Amagansett. The hope is to avoid having paid paramedics from two districts answer a call under the mutual aid system when an ambulance is all that is needed. “It’s not about the districts. It’s not about the money. It’s about good patient care. I think that’s why everybody went to the paid system. That’s, at the end of the day, what’s the most important thing,” Mr. Glennon said.

Mr. Glennon was not surprised to hear about how good the patient care Mr. Baumrind and the rest of the crew administered the night Mr. Cassidy crashed his motorcycle. “I always knew what we could do and then some,” he said.