By Gwyndolyn Miles
Richmond Times-Dispatch
RICHMOND, Va. — Donald Unger saves lives.
He’s been doing it for 52 years. For free.
But after five decades of volunteer service, he’s hanging up his EMT uniform.
Unger, who will turn 70 next month, has always valued the idea of giving back to his community. His father did volunteer dental services in New Jersey while Unger was growing up.
| LISTEN: We’re not OK: The What Paramedics Want in 2025 report pulls no punches
“I think it’s important to give back if you’re able to,” Unger said. “More and more people need services and may not have access to them.”
In some cases, Unger says, the people he services are worried about the bill for their care. They’ll frantically present insurance cards or directly say that they can’t afford the help.
“You can tell there’s a great sense of relief when I remind them that we’re volunteers,” Unger said. “We don’t charge for our services.”
Unger also had a fascination with trucks as a child, and his grandmother would take him to the local fire stations to watch the crews roll out. As he got older, he’d even track the fire trucks by ear and chase them down on his bicycle.
When he was 12 years old, Unger started hanging around the local volunteer ambulance squad. He learned about their equipment and helped the volunteers clean up around the station. In 1971, Unger signed up for New Jersey’s first EMT class.
Unger moved to Richmond for college, studying economics at the University of Richmond. Almost immediately upon being dropped off at his dorm, he presented himself to the Tuckahoe Volunteer Rescue Squad. He’s been a member ever since.
According to Unger, he’s worked around 2,500 shifts for the rescue squad in his tenure there. He rides in the ambulance nearly every week and says he has learned so much along the way.
“I’ve done lots of continuing education over the years,” Unger said, mentioning the 75 hours of classes he does every three years. “I’m always doing stuff to keep up my skills and learn new things.”
Unger says those hours give him confidence and certainty that he can continue to provide high levels of excellent emergency medical services to those who need it.
Some of the people Unger works with are between 18 and 20 years old. He affectionately refers to them as his “grandkids.”
“I’m trying to be a good mentor and pass along what I can,” Unger said.
Tynan Philips has been volunteering in Tuckahoe for over two years and works closely with Unger.
“It’s really amazing that he’s been doing this longer than I’ve been alive,” Philips said. “And he’s still keeping top of his game and delivering high-quality patient care even now.”
Sania Fatima has been volunteering there for over a year. She says Unger keeps things light while they’re on calls together.
“He doesn’t pressure you to know things that you might not know,” Fatima said. “He keeps us comforted.”
Philip Kanber hasn’t worked with Unger before, and Ghaida Ahmed has only ridden with him once. Despite this, they both find inspiration in the work that he does.
“Getting into this field, it’s really awesome to be able to learn from people like that,” Kanber said. “It jumpstarts you into learning as well as being inspired to know that I can do this long term.”
The “grandkids” all agree, their work is hard work. To see someone push through for so long is something they all feel like they can learn from.
“It’s something that I would like to see at the end of my life,” Philips said. “Having dedicated that to other people, because that’s why we do it.”
Over the years, Unger has seen nearly everything. He says that element of chance is part of the appeal. He says it could be simple as somebody needing help getting up off the floor. Sometimes it’s an overdose, a car accident or a heart attack. Unger says anything is possible when on the job.
“There’s obviously been terrible things I’ve seen over time,” Unger said. “I try not to remember those. I lock those away in what I call my mental filing cabinet.”
Unger has rescued a pet gerbil from behind a stove, he’s delivered a baby in the back of an ambulance in 12-degree weather, and he’s saved a man after his heart stopped beating.
When he saved that man, Unger ended up paying him a visit to see how he was doing. While the man did have a handful of additional medical emergencies after the fact, he lived on for another two decades after meeting Unger.
The pair became friends, and when he passed away, Unger sent a letter to the man’s wife.
“She sent me a nice letter back,” Unger said. “Thanking me for the extra 25 years.”
Unger and his team work hand in hand with firefighters, police and the families they serve. Their main goal is to keep their patients comfortable and get them to the hospital feeling better.
“Our goal is to reduce pain and suffering, and we provide,” Unger said.
Sometimes even, Unger says, he feels more like a social worker than a paramedic.
“It may not be so much what I’m doing physically for them so much as just listening to them, talking to them,” Unger said. “Putting our hand on their shoulder and providing sympathy or commiseration with them.”
To be a paramedic, Unger says adaptability is key. Preparedness to move from one extreme to the other is crucial when fighting to save someone’s life.
While he won’t be riding every week, the members of the Tuckahoe Volunteer Rescue Squad recently convinced Unger to keep his paramedic license active. For the next two years, whenever they need an extra hand, Unger will be there to help.
“It’s remarkably rare to find someone who does this in a volunteer capacity,” Philips said. “To devote that time with no expectation of anything in return.”
Almost every Friday, retired members of the Tuckahoe Volunteer Rescue Squad gather upstairs for lunch. They call themselves Crew Nine , and Unger will join them soon.
“Hopefully I’ve made some people’s lives better, made them pay less, made them feel a little better,” Unger said. “But it’s time for the next generation to pick up and stand behind.”
© 2025 Richmond Times-Dispatch, Va..
Visit www.timesdispatch.com.
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
