By EMS1 Staff
CANADA — Family, friends and colleagues gathered on Sunday to honor a paramedic who was killed in an ambulance crash on Oct. 25.
The funeral service for Leigh Schroeder, 28, was attended by hundreds who remembered him as a quiet man who was passionate about serving others, the Regina Leader-Post reported.
Schroeder worked with the Saskatchewan Health Authority EMS in Meadow Lake, after graduating as a primary care paramedic in June 2018. Previously, Schroeder had worked as an electrician.
“Leigh, I saw so much in you that just came naturally,” Schroeder’s older brother, Ryan Schroeder, said during the service. “You didn’t need an older brother to build up your character. You were born with great character.”
The crash that killed Schroeder also took the lives of two children – Jerome Coulineur, 12, and Kinzey Angeline Iron-Couillonneur, 1 – who were in the truck that collided with Schroeder’s ambulance, according to the Saskatoon StarPheonix. The incident occurred while Schroeder was on his way to respond to another crash.
According to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, road conditions “were poor with slush- and ice-covered sections at the time of the collision.”
Schroeder’s mother, Gwendolyn Schroeder, said an RMCP officer prayed with her son in his final moments. Friends said this was comforting, as Schroeder was known to be very religious and involved in his church.
The service also included a ceremonial EMS Honour Guard, in which a stretcher draped with the Canadian and EMS flags was carried by a processional of first responders out of an ambulance to the church where the funeral was held. Atop the stretcher were items symbolic of Schroder’s work as a paramedic, including a stethoscope.