White Plains Hospital Paramedic Course - 1987

[helicopper 1,050]

It dawned on me recently that this year will mark the twenty year anniversary of my paramedic class at White Plains Hospital.

Does anyone know of or have contact with any of the other alumni of this program? I would be very interested in finding out where everyone is two decades later!

On a related note, this month is also the 10th anniversary of the start of the Cortlandt Regional Paramedics! Congratulations to all those in the first paramedic course held at Butterfield Hospital and those who started that system a decade ago!

[HCFRFF 0]

ALSFIREFIGHTER should have some good stories about the beging of Cortlandt ALS

[Guest]

Congrats to all....but, in all honesty, i don't know how anyone could have lasted any amount of time in Butterfield. That place scares the living crap out of me.

[wcr20 17]

Wow - now I have to try to figure out what year I did my class there, damn...

[WAS967 97]

It dawned on me that it was 10 years at CRP only after John D. asked me what I would want for a 10 year anniversary gift.

I still remember when we started back in 1997, I believe it was in March or April sometime, the exact date slips my mind. The new paramedics from the Butterfield class went out on the road with a Rockland Paramedic preceptor/orientator who rode with them for something like 3 months or so to ensure that they weren't a slayer. RPS covered what shifts couldn't be covered by volunteers, and slowly as more people graduated the RPS contract was ended.

A few changes here and there. Some new vehicles, new equipment (including the infamous "parachute" bag that everyone hates, myself included), new faces (some old). Rumors of the future. Etc Etc.

Wonder where we'll be in another 10 years. Hmmm.

[RWC130 594]

Yes, I remember the 2 Chevy Suburbans with Yellow and Blue Lettering

"PARAMEDICS" on them. Looked very sharp!

I also remember someone on this board who did A LOT of work

to get this Paramedic program up and running.

As a resident of the City of Peekskill...

Chris192 THANK YOU!

[WAS967 97]

Those things were battering rams. I got cut off one day by a guy pulling an illegal U-Turn across route 6 I/F/O the Cortlandt Town Center and pushed his car clear across the street, blowing out every window in his little Honda. I'm amazed I didn't kill him. The airbags in the 'Burban....never even flinched.

[helicopper 1,050]

Those things were battering rams. I got cut off one day by a guy pulling an illegal U-Turn across route 6 I/F/O the Cortlandt Town Center and pushed his car clear across the street, blowing out every window in his little Honda. I'm amazed I didn't kill him. The airbags in the 'Burban....never even flinched.

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Gotta love suburbans!!! Bet it didn't need a whole lot of body work either! I bet Expeditions are much the same way.

still remember when we started back in 1997, I believe it was in March or April sometime, the exact date slips my mind. The new paramedics from the Butterfield class went out on the road with a Rockland Paramedic preceptor/orientator who rode with them for something like 3 months or so

It was either March 1st or 10th - something like that. The first few months were doubled up with an RPS medic - gotta have someone to ask questions, it would have been even more scary otherwise!

Anyone know how many of the original "first class all the way" Butterfield bunch are still involved in the system?

[Guest alsfirefighter]

I got the tail end of the suburbans, where the red paint was showing through a little by then. They were beasts indeed and there was nothing like experiencing the weight shift in them during wet roads either. I can think of a few times when they need body work or more like body replacement. The Cortlandt Town Center and the BMP were those vehicles curses. I didn't hit anything..but got cut off by a car who ran the light making a left onto route 6, at the same spot as WAS and I did a 360 in the intersection during a rain storm. I don't so much blame the car as I do (word removed) Mohegan Manor! lol. Who could forget how even with the AC on the heat the engine would still blow off and make your feet sweat while your upper body was cool, lol.

HCFRFF...I have a few ...but in that matter the 2 of us together have a few. lol. Good Old Charlie. Whats her name at Springvale who would call say she couldn't breath with COPD and would be smoking a cig when you walked in and would get pissed when you told her to put it out. Or the time I accidently locked myself out of the car.

I learned alot from that first class and the ride time I did with them and still work with several of them today. Thanks, Lucy, Jen, Tommy, Kenny, Shannon, Eddie and Johnny B. (you short prick, lol)

Chris...damn I knew you were getting old. $hit..but then so am I, lol. God knows you've answered a million of my questions over the years.

As far as those still in the system itself....Kenny is still there fairly often, WAS rides occassionally, then a few faces far and few in between. All the FD guys are still providers...Larry, JT, Greg and Kevin.

While we're talking about anniversaries...I just had my 7th year of my medic class then through Dutchess Comm. College. So to all my brothers and sisters who trudged along with me and took the test at Jamaica Hospital..right after a snow storm and a woman who froze to death on the roof the night before, here's to you!

Especially my 3 best friends throughout:

George, Rick and Kerri.

[wcr20 17]

Thought about it for a while last night - think i took the 3 class in '86 at WP... Damn...

[helicopper 1,050]

Chris...damn I knew you were getting old.  $hit..but then so am I, lol.  God knows you've answered a million of my questions over the years.

←

Who are you calling old? LOL!

I knew I was old when I was talking to a class of recruits at the academy about something from the 1980's and the whole class started laughing because one of the recruits wasn't even BORN yet!!! Sheesh! He was just 21 but still, that's just wrong!!!

[liver 15]

Chris:

Can you remember who else took the class with us?

[INIT915 1,119]

ALS-

It was 27Q Springvale. PM me if you want her name, I hesitate to post it here.

Hint: H. M. (Does that spark it for you?)

[Guest alsfirefighter]

LOL. Yes it does. I can still see her face and sucking on that long cig while telling me she couldn't breath...lol.

[Guest]

You guys are all rookies. You probably all still carry rolls of tape on your belts. I took the original complete level 4 class with J.O. when he had his office in the elevator shaft off the main lobby at WPHMC. They had only level 3 courses up to that point and offered one "upgrade" to level 4 before offering the full 4 class in 1982. In those days, you needed to carry both a vaild EMT card AND a valid EMT-P card! We took the two separate exams at the end of the course.

Abbey Richmond was the only commercial ALS provider in Westchester, and 6 Yonkers ESU cops were in the class too- one who I believe is still a captain on the job. Sometimes we even sent a strip to the ER over a landline telephone!!! (Just like Johnny & Roy.)

One of my former classmates is a NYS EMS official who oversees Westchester.

P.S. We loved isuprel because it could give a cheesburger a pulse.

[Guest]

Damn your paramedic card is older than me! One former Medic from Abbey is my Sunday Partner, some of his war stories are out of this world. I remember one (working Empress in Yonkers) that involved lidocane jelly and an ESU truck door handel.

[Guest partyrock]

Nitro paste and door handles is so much funnier . . . allegedly. Its also the number 1 reason not to get into a prank war with medics.

[Oswegowind 17]

One of my favorite and not so dangerous was the ole dextrose on the windshield.

[helicopper 1,050]

One of my favorite and not so dangerous was the ole dextrose on the windshield.

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This sounds like material for an entirely new thread... I remember one crew coming out to their ambulance for an early morning call and finding the cab filled, floor to ceiling, with inflated rubber gloves! There was a trail of them half way to the job. If we do start another thread on the subject, let's just be sure the statute of limitations has expired!

As for the '82 medic class, you guys are celebrating a quarter century this year - not too shabby.

Does anyone have any idea how many from either the '82 or '87 classes are still working as medics or still in the area? Or for you '82 guys, still alive!

[Remember585 815]

ALS-

It was 27Q Springvale. PM me if you want her name, I hesitate to post it here.

Hint: H. M. (Does that spark it for you?)

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Oh man, now I feel old!!! I remember her too, God, have I really been around that long?!

Speaking of those Suburbans, the first time I had to drive one to the ER it DIED on the way and the Medic (forget his name) blamed me.....prick....

Correct me if I am wrong, but the Tri-Community ALS program that I usually work with was a couple years older then CRP, right? I still remember both of them launching. Prior to them it was either OVAC to the south or 2347 going north.

Wow, I think I want to retire now....