Gov. Justice gave COVID-19 help to WV hospitals and nursing homes. But emergency services agencies

Gov. Justice gave COVID-19 help to WV hospitals and nursing homes. But emergency services agencies ask ‘what about us?’


It’s hard to predict where a worker will end up during a 24-hour shift working at the Boone County Ambulance Authority.

A car wreck in the middle of the night on the outskirts of the rural county. An unresponsive person experiencing an overdose who needs a dose of naloxone to recover. A baby sick in a crib. A trip as far away as Pennsylvania or Ohio to transport a patient because all of the hospitals in the surrounding area are full or not accepting patients.

On a Friday in mid-October, it’s a COVID-19 positive nursing home resident with respiratory complications who takes Camron and Shawna Ramsey, out of the Danville station in Boone’s newest ambulance. The married couple returns two hours later, just after another crew comes back to the station after being out for the entire morning.

Between bites at the station’s dining table, the four discuss working in Emergency Medical Services during the pandemic. They’re stretched thin, and feeling underappreciated compared to other health care employees.

Read more: https://mountainstatespotlight.org/2021/11/08/wv-ems-want-covid-help-too/