Wisc. EMS Gets Valentine's Thanks From Colleagues

The Leader-Telegram, Eau Claire, Wis.

EMS workers and firefighters at the Eau Claire Fire Department's Station 5 got a sweet surprise Friday.

Several health care workers from Marshfield Medical Center-Eau Claire stopped by the fire station Friday afternoon to deliver giant valentines and sweet treats ahead of Valentine's Day. They said it's their way to say thank you for EMS workers' service during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We just want to show them how much we care about them, and thank them for everything they do for our community... we're a team, and we all work together," said Lindsay Carberry, manager of emergency services at Marshfield Medical Center-Eau Claire.

Local firefighters, police officers, and first responders gathered outside several Eau Claire hospitals on a few frigid early mornings in December 2020 to cheer, clap, and ring bells during a morning and evening shift change. They said they wanted to thank hospital staff for their work during the grueling COVID-19 surge.

On Friday, the group of health care workers said they wanted to return the favor.

"EMS plays a huge part in everything with health care," Lexie Schwartz, emergency department nurse and trauma and EMS coordinator with the hospital. "I think they're often left more on the back burner when it comes to your health care hero (recognitions)... But they're the ones out there every day, and without them, we wouldn't see some patients who don't have the ability to get to the hospital."

They also delivered treats and valentines to other first responders in the area, including in Chippewa Falls, Schwartz said.

"We've got three hospitals (in this community), so to know we're all on the same side, doing the same thing and working together... we see what the nurses and medical staff do, and it feels good to know they see us on the prehospital side," said Eau Claire firefighter-paramedic Grant Hansen.

Similar to the virus' surge that strained hospitals in the winter of 2020–21, another, bigger wave of cases — this time driven by the more highly transmissible omicron variant — crashed over the U.S. in January. While the number of new hospitalizations each week in Eau Claire County hasn't reached November 2020 levels, local hospital officials in January said capacity was strained.

The current omicron-driven surge appears to be winding down as of mid-February. Cases of COVID-19 have fallen this month across the country, and as of Friday, Eau Claire County is averaging 54 new cases per day.

As of last week, COVID hospitalizations across Wisconsin appeared to be declining: Roughly 52% of hospitals in the state say their ICUs are at peak capacity, down from 76% in mid-January, according to Wisconsin Department of Health Services data. The department also said that 89% of hospital beds and 89% of ICU beds statewide are in use.

Though omicron appears less likely to cause severe disease, it is highly contagious and causing so many people to become infected that the sheer volume of cases still results in a high number of individuals sick enough to require hospitalization, said Dr. Ken Johnson, the chief medical officer for Prevea Health who practices in the emergency departments at HSHS Sacred Heart Hospital in Eau Claire and St. Joseph's Hospital in Chippewa Falls, in January.