First-Responders and Research. Building a Bridge.

Research matters to people where they live, work, play, worship, and learn. What questions do they ask? Will Parente, a bridge between firefighters and research

Proem

My son, eight or nine years old, called me at work. “Dad, everybody’s OK, but you need to come home. There’s been a fire.” I was an Emergency Department nurse in rural West Virginia. The local volunteer firefighters put out a rapidly escalating brush fire around our house.

I became a nurse in 1975 and worked in home care for a few years in Western Massachusetts. When we moved to West Virginia as back-to-the-land hippies in an intentional community, I realized I knew little about responding to a family or community medical emergency. So, I became an EMT (Emergency Medical Technician) and then a paramedic, a volunteer first responder to accidents, heart attacks, fires, sudden births all sorts of medical emergencies. When we left West Virginia after twelve years, I stopped my first responder work and slowly pushed those days out of my mind.

I’m a fan of Jon Stewart. I followed the Daily Show for many years. I still follow the Daily Show. I especially appreciated Jon’s rabid advocacy for 9/11 first responders’ health care. Once again, my eyes opened. Now I’m eyeballs deep in community-centered research. Research that…