News : Virginia Gay paramedic Wendy Frentress earns state ambulance service award

Wendy Frentress

Virginia Gay Paramedic Wendy Frentress will attend the Stars of Life Conference in Washington D.C. in April, as a result of being awarded the Volunteer Individual of the Year award from the Iowa Emergency Medical Services Association (IEMSA). The Stars of Life Conference honors those who make outstanding contributions to ambulance service throughout the U.S.

Wendy received her award from the Iowa Emergency Medical Services Association at its November convention in Des Moines. She was nominated for the award by fellow EMT, Jane Hagen, and her EMS crew family at Blairstown Ambulance.

For the past 12 years, Wendy has been a staff paramedic at Virginia Gay, working in the Emergency Department and Acute Care. She and her husband, Jim, live just south of Vinton. Parents of six children and grandparents to four, they been EMT’s for ambulance services throughout Benton and Iowa Counties, both are current volunteers for Blairstown Ambulance, and both work part-time at Virginia Gay. But Wendy’s dedication goes beyond that.

“I love learning and I love work,” is how she describes what drew her to emergency response team work. After graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting and Management in 1998, Wendy, a Reinsurance Claims Analyst at Transamerica in Cedar Rapids, volunteered with the company’s Medical Alert Team (MAT) in the Fall of 2000. She is now Director of the MAT team.

“I didn’t know what the Medical Alert Team was and had no idea what it might entail,” Wendy says. “I just thought it would be an interesting challenge. I didn’t know my MAT role would save a life right near the front door of Transamerica.”

It was on her birthday when a group of consultants were walking into the office building and one man suddenly collapsed. Wendy responded to the call and found the man in cardiac arrest. Ripping open his shirt she immediately began administering CPR. A MAT team-mate quickly arrived with a defibrillator and they were able to get a heartbeat while Wendy continued doing CPR.

“I guess you could say the experience really got me hooked on the rewards of helping others face health emergencies,” Wendy explains. “I’ve always said that the more you give the more you get, and my volunteer work in emergency services gives me so much satisfaction.”

One of Wendy’s favorite ambulance stories concerns a farmer who experienced such severe chest pain and discomfort that he stopped working and sat in his field for a while before going back to his home. His wife found him and called 911. Wendy was one of those responding to the call.

“He was an independent, tough-spirited guy and he wanted nothing to do with our ambulance. He made it very clear that under no circumstances were we loading him on a cot to move him into the ambulance,” Wendy recalls. “That really presented me with a problem because I couldn’t get him into the ambulance for treatment without violating a basic rule that you don’t walk possible cardiac patients to the ambulance.”

Wendy’s solution was typical of her approach to all her patients.

“Even knowing that I was breaking all the rules for the care of cardiac patients, I asked if he would at least walk to the ambulance so we could determine what was going on,” Wendy adds. “I didn’t see much choice and it really boiled down to how I could help this man. Insisting on protocol wasn’t going to get him the care he needed. He walked to the ambulance and right after I got the monitor on him I could see he was suffering from an arrhythmia. While we were enroute to the hospital and after giving him medications per protocol, his hear converted to a normal sinus rhythm. I asked him if he felt better and he said he did. I told him I was so happy to see that his heart had converted and that I could just give him a hug. He told me to go ahead, so I did!”

Wendy’s skills and ability to empathize with patients set her apart.

“When we’re on an ambulance call I try to help the patient know what to expect when we get them to the hospital. Not only are they experiencing pain or discomfort in the present, but they also have feelings of apprehension over what will happen next,” Wendy says. Sometimes that means she takes a conversational back seat to another ambulance team member who may not have achieved Wendy’s level of training. “If the patient seems to feel more assured by my team-mate, I let them do the talking while I keep my attention on the medical situation.”

Paramedics are at the top level of Blairstown’s ambulance caregivers. In addition to the significant training required for paramedic designation, paramedics must complete 72 hours of continuing education every two years to keep their National Paramedic certification. Wendy volunteers her time for ambulance work and covers her training expenses out of her own pocket, maintaining both her state and national certification.

It was an ambulance association with Tina Eden, Director of Nursing at Virginia Gay, that led Wendy to work there. Tina came to know Wendy over several years through their work together for Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and admired Wendy’s professionalism shined through.

“What impresses me about Wendy is that health care was not her chosen professional pathway,” Tina says. “It’s her personal passion. Wendy has a full-time business career. When you ask why she works at Virginia Gay in addition to her busy career, she gets a huge smile and says, ‘Because I love it!’ I have found that she’s truly caring person driven to provide the best care she can for her patients.”

Wendy is quick to turn the spotlight of praise back on the team.

“Most people don’t think about all that goes into a successful ambulance call. Help is needed and we respond, but a lot of preparation goes into our work. There are so many volunteers who work through many, many hours of training,” Wendy explains. “We rely on community support to fund the ambulance services. We can’t do anything without a physician willing to serve as Medical Director. Dr. Brian Meeker at Virginia Gay serves in that role for the entire County’s ambulance services and I can’t tell you how much we appreciate him.”

Volunteerism is a family tradition for Wendy; her father was a volunteer firefighter for more than 25 years and her son, in the Marines, volunteers for his community’s EMT/Fire response team.

“I don’t even like to think of my wage from Virginia Gay as paid work. I don’t look at my hours and I don’t check the stub,” Wendy says. “I’m here because I love people, I want them to be healthy and I want to volunteer the best of me to make that happen. I like being at Virginia Gay because I’m surrounded by people who share my sense of purpose.”

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