Mailbag: Community benefits from having firefighter-paramedics behind the wheel
In response to comments from a member of the community at the last Costa Mesa council meeting, Mayor Pro Tem Jim Righeimer remarked that it doesn’t make sense to have firefighter-paramedics “drive ambulances.”
That’s a significant contradiction worth noting. The fact is that Costa Mesa firefighter-paramedics are driving ambulances. That was part of the fire department reorganization plan Righeimer and the rest of the City Council voted for in May 2013.
The community currently benefits from firefighter-paramedics driving ambulances in the following ways:
• Firefighter-paramedics now have the option to immediately transport acute patients to the hospital instead of waiting for a private ambulance to arrive. This is critical for lifesaving patient care.
• Fire rescue ambulances are designed and equipped to perform lifesaving rescues and initial fire attack. Private ambulances don’t have this capability.
• Fire rescue ambulances are an additional resource to transport multiple patients on larger incidents.
• Fire rescue ambulances provide flexibility to the overall deployment of emergency resources that result in more effective service to the community.
These factors were an important part of the reorganization plan to make the Costa Mesa Fire & Rescue Department more effective and efficient. That’s why I find Mayor Pro Tem Righeimer’s statement that it doesn’t make sense for firefighter paramedics to drive ambulances so inexplicable.
Righeimer and the council majority recently voted to continue using private ambulances in addition to the fire rescue ambulances. That means two ambulances respond to every medical emergency.
In many cases, the private ambulance transports the patient to the hospital while the fire rescue ambulance follows. This is not efficient and not what the reorganization plan or the current fire chief recommended.
Firefighter paramedics need to respond on rescue ambulances to be more effective, but because they don’t transport patients, they just can’t be more efficient.
Tom Arnold
Costa Mesa
The writer is a former interim fire chief of Costa Mesa.
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Sophia Loren’s tips for success
People are always looking for wisdom: timeless principles by which they can live their lives happily and successfully. But it’s not always obvious where to look for wisdom. Some people even say there is no such thing as wisdom, that everything is an illusion, and a cool cynicism is as close to wisdom as we’re going to get.
But is it so?
Sometimes, good things are hard to see because they are right in front of us. That may be the case with Sophia Loren’s autobiography, “Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow.” Who would imagine that an Italian movie star would be a fount of wisdom?
But it is so.
Loren grew up in wartime Naples, Italy, under circumstances of almost unbelievable deprivation, poverty and danger. Yet she rose to become one of the best-known, best-loved people in the world. And, it is quite easy to overlook, she made millions of dollars, and lives in a chateau in Switzerland. By almost any measure, she’s a huge success.
How did she do it? Here are some of her principles:
• Be yourself, but always be getting better. Work on yourself all the time.
• Take a positive view of other people, but don’t be naïve; what are they really like? Penetrate the surface to their true nature.
• Read and think. Give your life depth, breadth and beauty.
• Take a soldier’s attitude toward jobs: be strong, be on time, listen to others, get along, do your assignments superbly well.
• As serious and important as it is, life is still something of a game. Have fun.
• Life is a strange balance of dreaming and doing. Never give up on your dreams. Hold them to your heart. But make sure your life works in a practical way. Think clearly about where you want to go and how you want to get there.
• If you do this right, you will end up wealthy and secure, surrounded by loving friends and family; you will eat, drink and laugh. And life will be good.
Ciao.
Dr. Steve Davidson
Newport Beach