Mary Ferrillo and Corey Bradley at EMT training. (Photo by Rob Williams)

When the Harvard dispatcher receives an emergency call for an ambulance, beepers go off all over town, and in some other towns, too. Some sound in Bromfield classrooms, others in offices, homes, and cars. Within minutes, at least four or five people arrive at the Ambulance Service headquarters on Ayer Road, a team assembles, a driver is designated, and the crew is off. One might expect that assembling enough volunteer EMTs to respond to a call might be a challenge given that there are no full-time EMTs on staff, but “somehow it all works out,” says Lily Baddour, the training director of the Harvard Ambulance Service and an EMT herself.

Harvard’s ambulance squad responds to approximately 275 calls per year and does so entirely with volunteers. “Harvard has one of the few remaining all-volunteer ambulance squads in the state, and there are even fewer that are separate from the fire department,” says Baddour. Currently there are about 36 volunteers on Harvard’s squad. Some are college students who are available only during vacations and others go south for the winter or are away for other reasons, so the volunteer pool available on any given day varies. Harvard is a small rural community, and most working adults have jobs out of town, making it a challenge to ensure that there is an adequate number of trained volunteers who can respond to daytime emergency calls. In addition, the majority of emergency calls occur between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m., making the issue even more acute.

Primarily in response to this need for daytime volunteers, the squad turned to another pool of potential volunteers, Bromfield students, who now account for more than half of the EMT volunteers. Alison Lierhaus, director of the Harvard Ambulance Service, says of the students, “The cadet training program has become more and more the cornerstone of the ambulance squad.”

Nine years ago, former Harvard resident George Hall, who was a member of both the fire department and the ambulance squad, started a student EMT training program. Normally in Massachusetts, students must be at least 18 years old to take the 110-hour EMT course, but the state granted Harvard a special waiver that allows students who will be at least 16½ years old at the completion of the training to take the course and participate on ambulance runs. (Bolton is the only other Massachusetts town in Massachusetts that has this waiver; cadet EMTs from Nashoba Regional High School respond with the Bolton ambulance.)

Harvard developed a comprehensive program that emphasizes practical, hands-on experience and training to dovetail with the EMT classroom academic work. By the time students take the state exam along with all other, mostly adult EMT students in the state, they have already undergone hours of practical training, including actual patient care. Also, extra care goes into supporting the special needs of the younger EMT students. For example, the squad members interview applicants to ensure that those selected are appropriate for the program, they provide student mentors who can act as liaisons to other members of the squad, and they closely monitor students and provide support, guidance, and counseling when necessary.

Five years ago, Baddour took the EMT course herself, “got the fever,” and started helping out with the following year’s EMT course. She worked with other members of the squad to expand the practical training so that students in the EMT program could actually participate in and contribute to the squad, rather than merely observe. Ramae Philippou, Bromfield’s school nurse, runs the practical training programs, which provide hands-on experience. Students must learn the entire contents of the ambulance, how to operate equipment, how to put patients on stretchers or backboards, how to administer oxygen, and so forth.

One of the benefits of having students participate in the EMT program is that it allows students to explore their interest in a medical career, either as an EMT or in some other capacity. “About 25 percent of kids decide they are not interested in anything further, about 50 percent are kind of interested but aren’t sure, and the remaining 25 percent really get into it,” says Baddour.

Bromfield senior Rob Williams is one of those who really got into it. Last year the Harvard Ambulance Service responded to 279 emergency calls. Williams responded to 157 of them, the highest number of calls run by anyone on the squad. Williams took the EMT training class in his sophomore year because wanted to do something to help the community and he wanted a challenge. He has found all that and more, he says. He has been running with the ambulance crew for two years and acts as a mentor to younger EMTs. “No call is ever the same,” he observes. “You have to think fast and make the correct decisions.” He enjoys working together with adults and other students. “I run with adults I never knew before, and kids who took the class with me, and kids I helped teach … and although one person may have more experience than another, people pull through as a team to provide proper care for the patient.” He also likes working with the police and fire departments in town, as well as other state public safety organizations, such as the state police, LifeFlight, and MedFlight. “It’s great,” he says. “Taking this class is one of the best decisions I have ever made.”

Williams originally planned to study photography in college but has changed his mind because of his EMT experiences; this fall he will be going to the Rochester Institute of Technology to become a physician’s assistant. He plans to go on ambulance calls in Harvard when he is home on vacations as often as he can.

A life-changing experience

Baddour clearly relishes her role as director of training, and she gets special satisfaction in working with the Bromfield students: “It’s a very unusual opportunity, not only for students, but also for adults, to be able to do this, to be on an ambulance squad. As a volunteer, you can be part of this. And to be able to offer this opportunity to a teenager? It is incredible. It really does change people. The best thing about this is that when someone connects with this, it becomes such an important part of their lives. It increases their self-esteem, and draws on something within that they didn’t even know they had. You have to be sort of a cowboy, but also a team player. It’s amazing to see these kids blossom and grow and become more confident. They have to make decisions; they have a skill that they know how to do. They come in and help other kids. To me that’s the best part. That’s the part I love.”

EMTs-in-training Nick Parker, Harry Powell, Katie Papazian transport a fellow student in the ambulance during a training drill. (Photo by Rob Williams)

J. P. Messina, another Bromfield senior on the squad, took the EMT training in his junior year after Williams raved about what a great experience it was. Messina, whose father, Peter Messina, is also on the squad, says, “Before I took this class I had absolutely no interest in the medical field. This experience has opened a lot of doors.” Like Williams, he is now planning to become a physician’s assistant, and he will attend Wagner College on Staten Island to pursue a master’s degree. “Doing what we do every day, it’s pretty amazing. It’s addictive,” he says.

Harvard’s ambulance squad runs on volunteer power and a tiny budget, costing the town only a fraction of what most towns pay for their EMS services. Director Allson Lierhaus points out that the typical EMS department requires an annual budget of about $175,000 compared to Harvard’s $32,000 budget. This year, the town approved the purchase of a new ambulance to replace the aging vehicle currently in use, and the squad is eagerly awaiting its arrival. “The ambulance we have now is a dinosaur; it is 11 years old and it is nickel and diming us to death,” says Lierhaus. The new ambulance is a big-ticket item, and Harvard’s Finance Committee has been applying pressure for the Ambulance Service to start billing the patients it serves, something the department has adamantly been resisting. After negotiating with the Finance Committee, the department has now agreed to start billing nonresidents for services; residents will still receive services free of charge.

A much busier future for the squad?

The new ambulance would see an increase in service if the proposed assisted-living development is built in town, says Leirhaus: “They say there may be as many as 90 beds in that development, and that could change everything. We have to see if this will really happen, and if it happens it will increase our call volume considerably. We would have to make sure that resources are in place to support this increase. We will be inundated and Ayer will be inundated too. Last year, a new assisted-living development in Ayer increased Ayer’s emergency call volume by 300 calls in a 12-month period from that new development alone. Obviously the additional support needed would depend on the facility itself, how much care its patients require, what medical support the facility will provide … there are so many ifs.”

Service on the Harvard ambulance crew requires commitment and a good deal of time. “But the rewards are amazing,” says Baddour. “It is a real honor to be allowed into people’s lives because they are asking you for help when they are at their absolute worst. They are at their most vulnerable and you walk into their house and they look at you, and you are there to save the day or at least help them through a difficult time. That is very special. We don’t take that lightly.”