By Dick Lindsay
The Berkshire Eagle
LEE, Mass. — Victoria “Vicki” Sorrentino became an Emergency Medical Technician — or EMT — 10 years ago because she wanted to help people — just as her husband Peter was doing as a volunteer firefighter for the Lee Fire Department.
However, Sorrentino’s training would start from scratch.
“I knew nothing of the medical field,” she said. “I didn’t even have a CPR card.”
A decade later, Sorrentino — an EMT with the Lee Ambulance Volunteer Service — not only teaches community members how to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation, but she’s now certified to train EMT recruits, who are sorely needed in Lee.
“If I can become an EMT, anybody can,” she added.
Sorrentino will conduct her first EMT-Basic course on Friday for the ambulance squad, which two months ago became the sixth state-accredited EMT training institution in Berkshire County. The other five designated sites by the state Office of Emergency Medical Services (OEMS) are the Southern Berkshire Volunteer Ambulance Squad (SBVAS), County Ambulance, North Adams Ambulance Service, Village Ambulance Service in Williamstown and Williams College.
EMT trainees require a minimum of 110 hours of classroom and field training, but Paul Coffey, EMT training coordinator for OEMS, said oftentimes the course is spread out over more than 130 to 150 hours to ensure all the material is covered. Coffey said the maximum class size is 36, but Sorrentino anticipates about a dozen students when her course begins this Friday.
Lee only has 27 EMTs for 24-hour coverage, which is why the ambulance squad wanted to begin in-house training, according to its director, Lisa Breault, who noted state law requires at least two EMTs for every ambulance call.
“Ideally we could use a total of 40,” said Breault, “but the economy the way it is, it’s hard for people to volunteer.”
Breault added Lee will waive the $750 course fee if recruits who complete the training and pass the state EMT exam commit to the Lee ambulance squad for a year.
That’s easier said than done, according to Charles Spirydowski, an EMT instructor and vice president of SBVAS.
"(The EMTs) commitment is huge,” said Spirydowski, a 19-year veteran of EMT duty. “A lot of time is spent away from the family.”
Nevertheless, Spirydowski and fellow EMT and instructor with SBVAS, Christine Wright, welcome Lee as a new training site.
“The more we have, the more people will be trained and that’s good for patient care,” Wright said.
Breault noted Lee needs to bolster its volunteer ranks as it also covers Tyringham, Stockbridge and the first 25 miles of the MassPike, giving the Lee squad the second-largest coverage area south of Pittsfield, behind the SBVAS, which serves Great Barrington and six other South County communities.
Despite Lee having fewer EMTs in recent years, Coffey said Massachusetts has nearly 19,000 EMTs, either paid or volunteer, with 2,600 in Western Massachusetts. In addition, another 4,600 statewide have more advanced emergency medical skills as either intermediates or paramedics.
“The number of EMTs has climbed each of the last 30 years,” Coffey said. “The problem is availability, as very few employers allow their staff to respond during the daytime.”
Breault said that’s why the past few years, the Lee Ambulance Volunteer Service has two full-time paid EMTs working weekdays.
“The mills used to allow people to leave on emergency calls,” said Breault. “Now, a lot of businesses can’t afford to have people leave.”
Despite the commitment of time, money and “a lot of material to grasp” during the course, Sorrentino said if someone is driven to volunteer as an EMT, he or she will.
Breault said her father and brother both dying of a heart attacks at a young age prompted her to initially become an EMT and eventually a paramedic.
“I lost my father when I was 10 and that stayed with me,” she said.
Wright said she was even more dedicated to becoming an EMT following the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, in which New York City emergency medical personnel were among rescuers killed when the World Trade Center towers collapsed.
“My husband asked me, ‘Are you sure you want to do this?’ ” recalled Wright, who had just begun her training. “I said, ‘Absolutely.’ ”