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Lawrence County proclaims May 18–24, 2025, EMS Week; county EMS highlights patient saves, training and recruitment
Summary
The Lawrence County Board of Commissioners unanimously approved a proclamation naming May 18–24, 2025, Lawrence County Emergency Medical Service Week. EMS leaders and commissioners highlighted response volumes, training partnerships and several field deliveries and heart-attack responses during a presentation at the May 20 meeting.
The Lawrence County Board of Commissioners on May 20 approved a proclamation naming May 18–24, 2025, Lawrence County Emergency Medical Service Week and heard remarks from EMS staff about recent operations, training and recruitment efforts.
The proclamation recognizes the county EMS as a “vital public service” and thanks the EMS team for “life saving care” provided 24 hours a day, the board said when it approved the measure. Colton Copley, president of the Lawrence County Board of Commissioners, read the proclamation and signed it on behalf of the board.
Why it matters: Commissioners and EMS leaders used the proclamation event to summarize local ambulance operations, training partnerships and community outreach that affect emergency care access across the county.
Commissioners praised the EMS workforce and highlighted occasions when prehospital care changed patient outcomes. “They do amazing things for the people in our county,” Copley said. He thanked voters for supporting EMS funding and said the service has been essential to getting patients to hospital care.
Dave, an EMS representative, told the board the county’s EMS responds to “somewhere between 525,000 incidents a year,” and said the service operates with seven full-time trucks. “We do that with 7 full time trucks,” he said, and added, “I will put our providers against any providers that there we have a really top notch team.”
The board and EMS staff also described several operational details and educational partnerships. Dave said the service recently finished its first EMT basic class and just began an advanced EMT class in partnership with Mount West Community Technical College, which EMS leaders said can shorten the path to a paramedic credential and an associate degree for local trainees.
Commissioners and EMS crew recounted a July 12, 2022, run in which EMS providers Tim McMaster and Ashley Shaw delivered a baby in the field. The mother, Amanda, attended the meeting with the child delivered that day and described the crew as calm and reassuring. “Ashley made it to where I wasn't scared at all. She had it under control,” Amanda said.
On clinical outcomes, Dave told the board the service averages “probably 5 or 6 a year” in-field deliveries and that he personally has delivered six babies over his career. He also reported that in April the service recorded “8 or 9 confirmed STEMI” (ST-elevation myocardial infarction) cases and met first-medical-contact-to-balloon time targets in about 90% of those cases.
Commissioners emphasized community outreach and training the EMS provides to residents and event organizers. Copley called the EMS program “nationally recognized” and said the county offers public CPR classes and training for prospective EMS personnel.
The board’s approval of the proclamation was recorded as unanimous by the three commissioners present: Colton Copley, Deanna Holliday and Mike Finley.
The board invited EMS personnel and the family involved in the field delivery to join for a photograph and presented the proclamation at the meeting.
