By Nick Brown, Sun Staff
Lowell Sun (Massachusetts)
Copyright 2006 MediaNews Group, Inc.
LOWELL, Mass. — Michelle Colton has learned to expect the unexpected.
“At my job, you come in, check out your truck, go through it, make sure all the equipment’s there, and then you just wait,” she said. “Calls start coming in.”
Even so, the Saints Memorial Medical Center paramedic described herself as “truly overwhelmed” when she was recently named the recipient of the Homer Bourgeois Award and a $1,000 cash prize.
The Bourgeois Award, named for a former president of St. John’s Hospital (Saints is the product of a merger between St. John’s and St. Joseph hospitals in the early 1990s), is given each year to the Saints employee who most goes above and beyond his or her duties. Nominees are submitted in writing by an employee’s peers, with the winner selected by a committee chaired by human resources representative Cindy Turco.
“The fact that my peers thought enough of me to nominate me is incredible,” Colton said.
In her case, the nomination didn’t even come from her direct colleagues.
“The people in the E.R. (emergency room) did it,” said Ben Podsiadlo, director of advanced life support. “Then, naturally, other medics jumped on the bandwagon.”
Colton won for a number of reasons, said Turco.
“She’s very active in the community, and she developed this hospital as a on-site location for students.” Turco said. “She continues to pursue her education for the benefit of her career. And the quality of the nomination essay showed that she’s admired by many people, both employees and community members.”
Colton’s life in paramedics has come full circle. She began in 1978 as a part-time emergency medical technician (EMT) to pay for school. Now, almost three decades later, she is the one at the front of the classroom, instructing future medics.
“It’s a lot of fun to take fairly young people and help them develop,” she said.
Of course, teaching is not Colton’s only skill. She can also save lives, and is known for her patient advocacy.
“For paramedics under pressure, it’s hard to think of the patient and his or her family,” said Turco. “Michelle is always able to keep the family in mind, to keep the patient’s comfort in mind, to be empathetic to the situation.”
The biggest reward of her work, Colton says, is “making patients feel safe.” She told the story of a woman who needed to be rushed to the hospital, but whose husband, an Alzheimer’s patient, was not safe in the house alone. “So we brought him in too, and just made him feel at home,” she said.
“She’s a consistent role model to all of us for how to be not only a superb clinicia,n but also a thoughtful caregiver,” said Podsiadlo.
For Colton, whose twin sister and husband are also EMTs, medical talent runs in the family. That natural ability certainly does not go unseen.