Respectfully
Chris Framsted
LT/Paramedic and International Training Coordinator, Texas A & M Fire School

I worked at Haley Ambulance, when it still operated out of the Haley’s home on 26th & Yates. Mrs. Haley dispatched and did the books at night and it wasn’t uncommon to hear a radio call of “Ambulance 3, Code B, Code M” which meant bring home a loaf of bread and a half-gallon of milk. The crews “lived” on the third floor of the house. Mrs. Haley was an animal lover with two dogs that the crews had to dodge getting out the door to respond to a call. She also had a monkey named “Doc” who was caged atop the refrigerator in the main floor kitchen. (There are a lot of great stories about Doc, most of which can’t be shared in a public forum.)

I started at Haley in 1976 after coming back from the Army with an advanced first-aid card. Basic CPR training was really still in its infancy. In the army we had learned resuscitation with the victim prone – compress over the shoulder blades and then lift the elbows.

I met John Jungclaus and Kevin Haley in the emergency room (yes, one room – three beds) of the old Beth Israel Hospital (17th & Lowell) where I was working as an orderly. I convinced them (and Mrs. Haley) to hire me and I drove their wheelchair cab while going through my basic EMT training out at Lutheran Hospital in Wheatridge. At that time the company had three Cadillac Miller Meteors. The Paramedic’s car was a ’73 “High Top” that had the smoothest ride and was the easiest vehicle I ever worked the back of. It was said that the Federal Q on that car had broken window panes in storefronts on Colfax while going into St A’s. All I know is that traffic was always stopped at 26th & Sheridan when we rolled out of the alley behind base while winding that siren out.

My mentors at Haley, in addition to John and Kevin, were folks like Jim Dernocoure and Craig Corey. Jim and his wife, Katey Boyd Dernocoure became regular contributors to the original JEMS journal and authored a number of EMS texts. Craig went off to medical school. Don West was an EMT and our maintenance guru. He and John ended up as owners of the company. My first partner after moving from the chair cab to an ambulance became a life-long friend. Tony Stone is now a retired Denver Police Sergeant.

I left Haley to go work in the flight program at St. Anthony’s Flight for Life as a Flight EMT. I was so happy when “Dusty” hired me and I got my own set of wings. In 1978, there were only two civilian, hospital-based flight programs in the country! They were Flight for Life, which had started in 1972, and Houston’s Hermann Hospital Life Flight.

Back then, Lifeguard 1 sat on top of the east wing of St Anthony Central. We had a small room beside the helipad where we kept all of the supplies for the helicopter and fixed-wing. We could also do medical resuscitations in that space. The room was called Fred’s Box and was named for the original flight EMT – Fred Turner who went on to have a distinguished career at Littleton Fire. I replaced Fred when moved to the fire service. While we three flight EMTs were primarily responsible for stocking the aircraft and taking care of supplies and didn’t get to fly to many scenes with the flight nurses, we did do a lot of traveling in the fixed wing as another set of hands. I got to work with some great nurses like Dusty Eid, Carol Wichman, Jane Miller, and Davette Jackson. Some of the lessons I learned from all the flight nurses have stayed with me through the years and have been used in my two tours in Iraq.

I was in cycle twelve of St. Anthony’s Institute of EMS Paramedic training, graduating in 1979. Dr. Gerry Gordon was one of the best teachers I’ve ever had. I still try to use his style of teaching when I’m working with new nurses, because he had the ability to make a person understand. (You were right Dr. G. The problem with the world today is that they don’t teach cardiology in third grade! RIP, Sir.) I was also fortunate in being exposed to the genius of the likes of Drs Henry Cleveland and Boyd Bigelow. Without their guidance and foresight, EMS in Colorado and the nation would be dramatically different. I also saw a number of Emergency Medicine leaders go through their residency training while working and studying at St. A’s.

After graduating with my paramedic certification I had to leave Flight for Life because, back in the day, there weren’t any flight paramedics. As much as I tried to convince the management of the potential benefits of adding a paramedic to the crew in 1979, it wasn’t until years later that a paramedic was put on board full time.

I went back to working on the ground, first with Physician’s Ambulance in Westminster and then, shortly after, with Ambulance Service Co, Inc. (ASC).

At ASC I worked out of the Downing Street station, Mercy Hospital Station, both Arvada stations, and the Southwest Adams County fire district stations. We backed up Denver General’s ambulance service – now Denver Paramedic Service, as well as Littleton and Castlewood Fire. We were the primary ALS providers in Arvada, Federal Heights, parts of Westminster, and Cherry Hills down south. Of course we had mutual aid agreements with Commerce City, Aurora, Lakewood and Bancroft Fire. A big move for our service was when we put two units into Douglas County; one in Parker and one in Castle Rock to cover the entire county. Days would go by without either of those cars turning a wheel.

Needless to say, the Unrein and Roach families who combined their companies (American and Roach Ambulance Services) into what became Ambulance Service Co, Inc. were very instrumental in the evolution of EMS in the Denver metro area.

I left ASC in 1987 to spend a year managing Platte Valley Ambulance in Brighton as that service transitioned from an all volunteer agency.

I left the metro Denver area in 1988. I spent another four years working EMS in Pueblo while attending the University of Southern Colorado and earning my degree in nursing. After nearly seventeen years in Colorado EMS, with a newly minted nursing license in hand, I had the opportunity to return to military service. I was commissioned in the nurse corps of the US Air Force and moved to Florida. I obtained Florida paramedic certification and spent many of my weekend’s off-duty working in the back of Rural Metro ambulances doing critical care transports between Tallahassee and Pensacola.

I finally crawled out of the back of my last civilian, ground ambulance in June, 1997 when I was accepted into graduate school. During those twenty years of working in and around ambulances I witnessed some great (and some not –so-great) innovations and evolutions such as:
LifePak 3 –> LifePak 5->LifePak 10
Plectron alert radios the size of a microwave oven –>belt pagers the size of a cigarette pack.
Portable two-way radios to stay in contact with dispatch.
Portable pulse oximetry.
Ten channel medical communications system to contact various hospitals with St. A’s comm center acting as the switchboard.
The development of Adam’s County Communications Center
“Portable” ventilators suitable for use in the back of an ambulance.
KED Extrication device
Three compartment MAST pants

I’ve now been practicing nurse anesthesia for over ten years and I still draw on some things that I learned while working as a basic EMT or Paramedic. Every day, I stand at the head of an operating room table caring for a patient during one of the most vulnerable experiences of their lives. I love what I do. But I never dream about being in the operating room. Most nights I dream of being in the back of an ambulance.

Michael Frank, CRNA, MSN (former Paramedic)

@Chris The Dexter incident will live in my memory forever … and come up at drunken story sessions for at least another few decades.

LMAO!

I would like to address a couple issues that came up after reading all your comments.
1. To Tim McChesney: You are getting old….Deal with it! hahahah
2. It’s amazing how a phrase like “remember where you came from” is such a simple phrase, but one that has great meaning and importance in your life.
3. “hide the ambulance from Chris”, I cannot confirm or deny. I can say that it was a blast making it your goal in life to find the GPS tracking thing that was placed on the ambulances with the initials A…M…R…and wrapping them in tin foil. For anyone wondering…yes…it worked!
4. “G” sounded like Snoop Dog on the radio when he called Monty Hanson and I “ONE O DEUCE”.
5. Number 8…I LOVED blowing the 6′ flame out the tail pipe as we would do “drive-by’s” on the bus stops along West Colfax at 2 am.
6. I’ll never forget the first time I drove code 3. It was Tony Wheeler in the back (God rest his soul). We got to Central, Tony was a bit bruised, but didn’t say a thing. We were given a transfer out going ack to a nursing home. Tony threw me in the back, and from Central to what felt like KANSAS, Tony proceeded to hit every curb, take every corner an screeching speeds, slam on the brakes til the pads were gone, etc… I was freaking DAMAGED when we go to our location! Never drove like that again!

And lastly…A couple new “back in the day” memories….

1. Megan: The porta-potty, “Garden Level”, the monkey hat, and “Torch”.

2. For the Pridemark folks…..THREE WORDS….1. LASER, 2. DEXTER, 3. ER. ENOUGH SAID!…I’m still healing!

Thanks again folks! May the memories be forever in our minds and hearts.

Framsted

Bobby Putnam

As for the rest? Remember “Sic em’ Chris?” That night at Jeffco Detox..?