Illness Sidelines North Carolina EMS Standout

GREENSBORO - Memories of Tammy Wilson in action remain vivid with her colleagues at Guilford Emergency Medical Services.

They saw her in uniform where people were hurt or sick. As an EMS technician, she not only provided skilled care, but comforted family members before climbing into the ambulance to continue treatment on the way to the hospital.

"People immediately trusted Tammy," said Susan Chilton, an EMS supervisor who rode on calls with Wilson. "It was like she became one of the family. It was neat to watch her dealing with people who were having the worst day of their lives."

Now, the roles have been reversed for Wilson.

During the past 18 months, she has been the one lifted onto a gurney and put in an ambulance. She stares up at technicians she once worked with.

Sunday was her latest ambulance ride. She started feeling severely sick again and was taken to Wesley Long Hospital.

"I'm hanging in there," the 40-year-old Wilson said Tuesday from her hospital bed.

She was diagnosed in 2004 with cancer, which by then had spread throughout her body. They told her she is terminally ill.

She hasn't worked in 18 months. But she didn't stay still during that time. She taught a CPR course at her church, Whitsett Baptist. One Sunday, when she was feeling weak, a fellow member of the congregation went into cardiac arrest. She found the strength to administer CPR.

She accepts her fate, which means that her husband, Keith, a firefighter at Station 2, and their two children, Megan, 13, and Collin, 4, will have to get used to being without her.

"Sometimes I think about it, but they keep me medicated so I really don't think about it that much," she said.

Besides, gloominess isn't her nature.

"She has taught us so much - valuable lessons about life, how to face it with a bright attitude," said a tearful Chilton.

Reid McCormick, another supervisor, said all technicians are skilled at medical care, but Wilson also was blessed with natural public relations skills.

"She was always taking the opportunity to talk with families, to calm and comfort them and to tell what to expect at the hospital," he said.

A Florida native, Wilson has lived in the area about 20 years. She worked at Moses Cone Hospital as an endothermic technician. After 11 years, she quit to enroll full time in a two-year EMS training course at GTCC .

"I saw EMS people come in the hospital," she said, "and I wanted to do that."

After graduation, she worked awhile for Piedmont Triad Ambulance and Rescue, then joined Guilford EMS in September 1999.

"For some, EMS is a life, not a career, and she was one of those," said Charles Porter, who retired two years ago as the Guilford EMS director and whose name graces an award that was first presented in 2004 - with Wilson the initial recipient. The Porter Award goes to an EMS Academy graduate demonstrating skill and enthusiasm.

Although she was already a certified EMS specialist from her GTCC studies, Wilson volunteered for the nine-month EMS academy because she feared she was rusty from two years "off the truck,'' as EMS people call an ambulance.

She had been confined to EMS headquarters for nearly two years after she experienced a difficult post-pregnancy time following Collin's birth. Her appendix had ruptured and she suffered abdominal pains.

Near the end of her academy training, she and other trainees were at Moses Cone Hospital, when she excused herself to go to a nearby radiologist's office because she had a nagging pain.

When she returned, she told her colleagues the doctor had said it could be something serious or nothing much. Tests would be administered.

"She was confident it was the lesser of the possibilities," McCormick recall ed.

It turned out to be cancer, which had already spread over much of her body.

She went to a Boston hospital where doctors said they believe the cancer started in her cervix.

Her work file is filled with what the EMS calls "attaboys" - letters and notes from people thanking her for the attention she provided during a crisis.

McCormick said EMS was so happy when Wilson asked to return to answering calls. The service needed her touch with the public. Besides, Wilson was getting antsy in the office.

"She doesn't stand still long,'' McCormick said. "She is a ball of energy.''

She liked to cut up, too, even in the ambulance, Susan Chilton said.

If Wilson felt the atmosphere becoming too tense, she'd pop into her mouth a set of "hillbilly teeth" to lighten the mood. She made sure the patient didn't see her.

The Greensboro Fire Department held a fund-raiser last summer to help the Wilsons, who live on Council Road near Graham. EMS people visit her often. When she needs an ambulance, a Guilford EMS vehicle goes to Alamance County.

"I loved my job," she said. "I heard two of the EMS trucks come into the hospital this morning. It made me want to be there with them."

Contact Jim Schlosser at 373-7081 or jschlosser @news-record.com

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