By Jondi Gumz
Santa Cruz Sentinel
SANTA CRUZ, Calif. — Dr. Kent Benedict, emergency medical service chief for Santa Cruz and San Benito counties, announced Monday that he will retire in six weeks.
The announcement came during a county briefing on preparing to contain transmission of the deadly Ebola virus.
Benedict has held the EMS post for 30 years.
After earning his medical degree at the University of Southern California, he came to Watsonville Hospital in 1974, where he was an emergency physician for 24 years.
He taught physician assistants at Stanford University School of Medicine for 28 years and spent 23 years as chief medical officer for the CSU Maritime Academy, serving as ship’s surgeon for the U.S. training vessel, Golden Bear.
Benedict’s successor will be Dr. David Ghilarducci, medical director of American Medical Response, the ambulance company, and quality improvement officer at O’Connor Hospital in San Jose, board certified in emergency medical services, and former EMS chief for Santa Clara County.
He started his career as a Gilroy volunteer firefighter, then got hired as a firefighter at UC Santa Cruz. His background includes working as a hazardous materials specialist, as a Santa Clara County fire captain for nine years, and a fire science instructor at Cabrillo College.
He earned his medical degree in 2000 from the Medical College of Wisconsin, worked in emergency medicine at Kaiser Permanente, and spent a monthlong stint as a disaster physician in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake.
Ghilarducci lives in Santa Cruz.
“He’s a personal friend of mine,” said Benedict, noting a transition plan is underway under Ghilarducci starts in December. “He’ll be the point man in the Ebola process. There’s nothing like being thrown into the fire and learning while you’re working.”
Benedict said retirement will give him more time to spend as a ship’s captain in the Caribbean.
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©2014 the Santa Cruz Sentinel (Scotts Valley, Calif.)