By Kathe Tanner
The Tribune (San Luis Obispo, California)
Copyright 2007 The Tribune
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News
The death of a paramedic Monday left a swath of mourning among thousands of patients he’d assisted, emergency medical services crews across the county and people in groups he’d helped.
David Melendy, the former head of the Cambria Community Healthcare District, died in the Baton Rouge, La., hospital where he’d been a patient since suffering severe liver damage in a March 8 motorcycle accident.
Melendy was injured while on a cross-country motorcycle trip with Morro Bay fire Chief Mike Pond and Tom Prows, retired Morro Bay fire inspector.
Melendy’s condition had been slowly improving until late Saturday, when his kidneys failed and an infection spread through his body. Family members and friends who flew to Louisiana on Sunday were with him when he died.
Mary Parker, Cuesta College’s director of nursing and allied health services, said through tears Tuesday that Melendy, an instructor and coordinator for the school’s emergency medical technology program, “was an icon.”
“Because of him, we have a very strong emergency-medical services program,” she said.
Cuesta’s first paramedic program students will complete their studies sometime this summer, she said. “That’s 99 percent because of Dave Melendy and is his legacy.
“I’m so sad for the students that won’t have the benefit of his expertise, his dedication ... and even his horrible jokes.”
In recent weeks, community members and co-workers had donated more than $30,000 at two fundraisers, and more had been deposited in the Dave Melendy Medical Benefit Account at Mid-State Bank & Trust. Now, that money will be used for medical and other expenses and to help support his wife, Linda, a kindergarten teacher, and sons Tyler and Jared.
Born in 1955 in Pasadena, Dave Melendy was raised in Cambria and graduated from Coast Union High School, where his sons are students.
In 1975, he started as a volunteer with the Cambria health care district ambulance service, which his mother had helped found. In 1983, he became the 12th paramedic licensed in San Luis Obispo County and was named administrator of the district.
Arrangements for a service were not complete at press deadline, but tentative plans are to have a memorial at Leffingwell Landing at 11 a.m. April 21 with a reception to follow at another location.