By Steve Lieberman
The Journal News
Copyright 2008 The Journal News
VALHALLA, N.Y. — Rockland emergency medical technician Bonnie Ames awoke from sedation yesterday and learned her right arm had to be amputated after a crash on Route 59 in West Nyack.
Surrounded by family, with colleagues and friends also at the Westchester Medical Center, the 21-year-old EMT from Orange County was heavily sedated to ease her pain.
Ames was severely injured Monday morning when the passenger’s side of the Regional EMS rig she was riding in was sheared off when the vehicle hit a flat-bed truck parked on Route 59 in West Nyack.
The Clarkstown Police Department is investigating the cause of the crash, Sgt. Harry Baumann said yesterday. There has been no determination about whether speed was a factor. No charges have been filed.
Despite her pain and her anguish about losing a limb, Ames kept asking about her partner - EMT Scott Millar, 19, who drove the rig. He suffered deep cuts across his head and a neck injury. He also was being treated at Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla.
“She keeps asking about Scott,” said Tracie Mader, 25, who is Ames’ friend and a fellow EMT in Rockland.
“We told her: ‘He’s fine, but he’s more worried about you,'" Mader said. “This girl’s in pain with all these tubes and an amputated arm, and she’s concerned about someone else. It made you want to cry.”
Mader said that’s the type of person Ames is - putting others first.
It was that attitude that led Ames to become a four-year volunteer firefighter for her home community of Florida in Orange County, a volunteer with the Walkill Ambulance Corps for five years and then a paid EMT for the past 18 months with Rockland EMS, a sister company of Rockland Paramedic Services.
Ames also played the trumpet for a group called Queens Village Queens for the past decade, Mader said.
Mader, a lieutenant with the Walkill Ambulance Corps in Orange County, helped train Ames when she came to the Regional EMS.
“She goes around on Memorial Day and plays taps in the cemetery for the legion groups,” Mader said. “I can’t say enough about her. She’s like everybody’s friend. I can call her anytime to help out. She’s always there.”
Mader said Ames probably got some of her voluntarism from her family. Ames’ mother, Elizabeth, volunteers with the Florida Fire Department and is a 911 dispatcher. Ames, who also has a brother, dates an EMT, too.
“She comes from good family values from her mother and father,” Mader said. “That helped make her who she is. She likes being out there helping people.”
Monday morning’s accident closed down Route 59 in both directions for several hours.
The Clarkstown Police Department’s accident investigation team had not yet interviewed Millar or Ames, Baumann said.
The unit had not made any determination about what caused the accident or whether speed was a factor. Millar was driving to Nyack Hospital to set up and was not responding to an emergency, police said.
As the rig passed the flyover bridge to the Palisades Center mall, it hit a Kamco Supply Corp. truck parked on the shoulder of Route 59, near the car wash and Dunkin’ Donuts, police said.
The company transports construction materials, like plasterboard and bricks, Baumann said.
The driver, Sam Lalmahabir, 46, of Richmond Hill, Queens, had just made a delivery at the ShopRite supermarket on Route 59, Baumann said.
“He just dropped off a load at ShopRite and said he pulled over to the side of the road to make a cell-phone call,” Baumann said.
He was not injured.
Baumann said he doesn’t believe investigators were leaning toward issuing the driver any summonses in connection with parking on the shoulder.
Regional EMS employees were devastated by Monday’s crash.
“We’re very happy she is alive,” Mader said. “She’s extremely lucky to be with us.”
EMTs, like other emergency service personnel, consider each other family, calling each other brothers and sisters.
And Ames’ and Millar’s professional family spent the past two days looking out for them at the hospital. Her colleagues have started a fund to help her family pay for her recovery.
“She has a long recovery ahead of her,” said Raymond Florida, executive director of Rockland Paramedics and Regional EMS.
Florida called Ames a “fighter.”
EMS workers are keeping vigil at the hospital, comforting her and Millar and both of their families.
“Millar is devastated by what happened,” Florida said. “He’s OK physically, but he’s going to need some counseling.”