Meet the Grandfather of Maine EMS

Last fall Ron Morin took his replica Squad 51 to South Portland, Maine, for a show. After dropping off the vehicle, he decided it was time for dinner. While driving to his restaurant of choice, Morin passed out and struck another vehicle. Fortunately he was near South Portland’s Western Avenue fire station.

Four minutes later he had nine EMS providers working on him. With continuous CPR, epi, and defib, they restored a pulse. It took just 18 minutes from the time of his arrest to the cardiac cath lab and obtaining reperfusion. Morin had suffered a 100% occlusion of the “widowmaker,” his left anterior descending (LAD) artery. According to the American Heart Association, only 12% of those who suffer this type of heart attack in the prehospital setting survive.

Morin woke 48 hours later, cold from the hypothermia and with no recollection of the event. His heart needed some time to recover. Now he looks like a million bucks.

'Of Course I Can' 

Morin is often referred to as the “grandfather of Maine EMS” in the state’s EMS community. He got his first taste of ambulance work in the Navy. Morin grew up in Livermore Falls, and after high school his older brother thought he needed direction and took him down to the local recruiter. Morin signed up for a four-year stint and was trained as an ejection seat technician. It was 1964.

One night there was an accident involving staff off base, and an ambulance was needed. None of the hospital corpsmen were comfortable driving one. Morin was hanging out in the area and was asked if he could drive one. “Of course I can,’’ he replied, even though he’d never sat in one before. From that moment on he was the base ambulance driver along with his tech duties. He still has his original license. 

Shortly after his discharge, back home in Livermore Falls, Morin suffered serious burns in an apartment fire. He had a 38% TBSA burn and burst foot from the swelling. After an extended wait for the local ambulance, he walked to the police station for assistance, and the desk sergeant drove him to the ambulance bay. The local doctor sedated him for comfort, and they drove him to the nearest hospital, 22 miles away.

After recovering from his burns, Morin met with the owner of the ambulance service and asked about the long wait. The owner blamed staffing issues. Morin signed on as an ambulance driver, and his EMS career started.

In 1971 he bought the ambulance service. At that time in Maine, there were no state protocols to work with—everything was medical direction. Morin’s state-approved list of equipment included a Ferno stretcher, two D oxygen tanks, an Ambu bag that needed washed and bleached after every call, and a Johnson & Johnson first aid kit.

Morin attended an EMT program at Harvard and upon completion asked if he could teach the course in Maine. His request was granted, and in 1971 he delivered what is believed to be the first EMT program in the state. He continued to teach the program (along with his wife, Becky, after she took her course from him) for 30 more years.

Becky was attending nursing school in Boston and traveled to the Carrabassett Valley area with friends on weekends. She took Ron’s EMT course and started running ambulance calls with him. As a nurse/EMT she took a bridge course to critical care. She later became head nurse in the CCU at Franklin Hospital in Farmington. Becky also was assigned privileges to provide ACLS care in the field, allowing her to use her critical care skills in the ambulance. 

The Call Heard Around Maine

Not long after that there was a field arrest. After two defibrillations the patient had rhythm, pulse, and blood pressure. Becky needed to contact medical control. In those days the ambulance radios were low-wattage, and in the Carrabassett Valley, with all the surrounding mountains, it was difficult to reach the hospital by radio.

On the next rise, the highest in the valley, Becky reached the hospital. This was the call heard around Maine: The request was for D5W with a lidocaine drip. Such a request in the field was unheard of, but medical control granted the request. This set off a firestorm of “Why them but not us?” Ron, as the service owner, was summoned to the regional EMS office and asked what was up. He reminded the agency that his wife was a critical care nurse, and they had a working relationship and privileges with the hospital working under local options. After some heated discussion, the issue was worked out, and soon the state started working on protocols that included more direction for paramedics. Dextrose, morphine, Demerol and Phenergan, MAST trousers, EOAs and critical care were added to the protocols. The first state medical director was appointed. EMS in Maine was born.

Morin attended the first paramedic class held at Central Maine Vocational Technical Institute in Auburn, graduating in February 1982.

Building a Service

When Morin took over the ambulance service, a large part of his winter business was from the Sugarloaf ski area. That didn’t produce much money. The service would transport the patients to the hospital in Farmington and then lose contact with them, as most were from out of state. A change in business practice was needed. On calls to the ski area, after a quick triage to rule out any life threats, crews started asking patients for payment. Morin would run their credit card through his machine, and transport would commence.

Around this time Morin was also unhappy with the cost of commercial ambulances—design and workmanship were his biggest problems. A true frugal Mainer, he decided to start building his own. Buying cube vans that were cheaper and stronger, Morin built his own vehicles with his own design and specifications. The first was for the Sugarloaf area. Other ambulance providers in Maine recognized the quality of his ambulances and started buying theirs from him—thus Sugarloaf Ambulance/Rescue Vehicles was started. Many of his specifications were incorporated into Maine’s state specs. 

Squad 51 Project

Like so many of us, Ron also watched the television show Emergency! Years later this sparked an idea to make an exact replica of its Squad 51. It took two tries on the chassis, but Morin found a retired forestry truck from one of the local towns. His best score was locating one of the original bodies from the show in like-new condition. It actually had been in service for the Los Angeles County Fire Department but when Morin found it had been forgotten in a storage shed for 15 years. It also was in California. Obtaining it required a flight from Maine, uncovering the body from the shed, renting a truck, and a cross-country trip home.

The Squad 51 History & Education Project has now morphed into a nonprofit history project. Morin has traveled around the East Coast with it, going to conferences and EMT programs and reviewing the history of EMS and Squad 51. For more see https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/History-Museum/Squad-51-History-Education-Project-108775900932327/.

Mike Kennard, EMT-P, I/C, has been in EMS for more than 41 years. He is a retired paramedic from Frisbie Memorial Hospital in Rochester, N.H., a retired assistant chief from Nottingham (N.H.) Fire and Rescue, and a part-time instructor for Granite State EMS.