Our community is so blessed to have this amazing group of caregivers who would, and continue to do, whatever it takes to care for others. You are all superheroes, without a doubt, and this story demonstrates that: 

One day, I witnessed what I can only describe as extraordinary courage from our Emergency Department team. Even after more than a decade in EMS and service as a first responder, it profoundly moved me. 

A vehicle stopped along Hillside Avenue, facing south between Jimmy John’s and McDonald’s. The driver exits the vehicle and is shot. In moments like that, instinct tells most people to retreat, to seek safety, and to protect themselves. Very few move towards danger.  

Without hesitation and with remarkable unity, these emergency professionals ran out of the hospital and into the street toward a scene that was still uncertain and potentially unsafe. They did not know the full scope of the threat. They only knew that someone needed help. 

They brought a stretcher. They reached the patient and immediately began providing care in the road.  With urgency and precision, the team navigated back through our Emergency Department doors. 

What I witnessed was not a routine response. It was not an obligation. It was courage under fire. It was colleagues acting as one, placing the life of another human being above their own safety. 

In those critical moments, they embodied the very best of emergency medicine and the very best of who we are.   

That night, they chose courage.