ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, March 8, 1997 TAG: 9703100035
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BEDFORD
SOURCE: JOANNE POINDEXTER THE ROANOKE TIMES
A rescue squad is getting help from a man it has treated and transported five times in five years.
It was about 3 a.m., and Ivan and Helen Lowery had just settled in.
He wasn't feeling well when he came home from work around 2 a.m. with what he thought was a little indigestion, so he took an antacid tablet.
But Ivan, who has worked the second shift at Ericsson GE in Lynchburg for 27 years, got no relief. "Something's wrong," he told his wife.
Helen jumped up and could see he was having difficulty breathing. She called for the rescue squad, while rushing around trying to dress.
That call - on Jan. 23, 1992 - was the first of five that the Lowerys have made to the Bedford County Volunteer Rescue Squad. Each call resulted in Ivan being stabilized and transported to Carilion Bedford Memorial Hospital. Each time, it was for his heart.
"I was very impressed with their medical knowledge, experience and determination to get me to the hospital alive," Ivan Lowery said.
"When they get here, you just know everything is going to be OK," his wife said. "When they pull in, it's such a relief that you can sit down and cry."
But the Lowerys do more than sing praises of the squad.
They are helping organize a support group to assist the volunteers.
Ivan said crew members have to spend too much time away from their families and need help with nonemergency duties.
He and Helen have been trying to recruit volunteers, helping with open houses and spaghetti dinners and pitching in to clean the crew hall. He's also on a letter-writing campaign to recruit members for the support group.
He said it's his way of repaying the volunteers who have responded to help him. "When I had my heart attack, I had real heavy chest pains. It was like an 800-pound gorilla on my chest, and these people came around and pulled it off."
The Bedford crew's 35 active volunteers - ages 19 to 62 - make up about one-tenth of the fire and rescue volunteers in Bedford County, many of whom have families and full-time jobs. The Bedford crew covers a 10-mile radius around the city.
County officials and volunteers said they are not in a crisis situation, but the need for more volunteers is there.
Danny Rider, for instance, has run more than 500 calls a year for the past 10 years. That's a high number, he acknowledged, but "if someone calls and says they need something, my little body just gets up and goes."
Rider is fortunate: His employer, Piedmont Label Inc., allows employees to leave to answer emergency calls. His wife, Liz, is also a crew member, and his children are active with the crew.
Rescue calls can take from one to two hours to clear up. Some days the squad runs 12 or more calls; other days, it doesn't have any.
The training is intensive - 112 hours mandated by the state for emergency medical technicians, and additional hours for paramedics and cardiac care technicians.
The volunteers, Helen Lowery said, need some relief.
Ivan Lowery has written letters to newspapers saying "the support group is needed to allow the rescue squad volunteers to concentrate on their primary function of answering emergency calls. The members have to spend so much time on housekeeping and maintenance chores that it increases the hours they must spend away from their families. This may result in volunteer 'burnout' and ... result in some of those trained in emergency care having to resign."
"We need help, but not for scrubbing floors. This is not a maid's job" said Susie Pratt, president of the Bedford County squad.
She and Liz Rider, the support group coordinator, already have a list of to-dos: fund raising; cleaning and maintaining vehicles; helping stock vehicles (``under proper supervision''); preparing and delivering food and drinks to rescue and fire volunteers out on extended calls; and helping with public education projects.
The support group concept - a carryover of women's auxiliaries - began to spread a few years ago after Amherst County started a support group, said Dave Nichols, Bedford County's public safety director.
Nichols said the Goode Rescue Squad in Bedford County has an active group, and several other crews in Bedford are pursuing the concept, but Bedford County has been the most rigorous recently.
Although the support group in Goode is fairly unstructured, it has helped the squad become more visible in the community, said former Capt. Rob Ballagh. In addition to public relations and fund-raising tasks, he said, the support group does follow-up checks on patients the crew has assisted.
Support groups don't require volunteers to give a lot of time.
"If you've got one hour a month, we'll take it," Liz Rider said.
For more information on the Bedford County Volunteer Rescue Squad's support group, call the crew hall at 586-2941; Liz Rider at 586-9527; or the Lowerys at 586-9527.
LENGTH: Medium: 94 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: DON PETERSEN THE ROANOKE TIMES. Ivan and Helen Loweryby CNBwant to give Bedford County Volunteer Rescue Squad members such as
Liz Rider (left), Susie Pratt and Daniel Rider more free time by
helping around the station house. color.