This year marks the 5th anniversary of the Saint-Lazare Medical Response Unit. The local pre-hospital service began providing emergency medical first response on December 6, 2003.
As a lead-in to that anniversary date, this newspaper presents the first in a series of profiles of the volunteers who provide this emergency service.
Name: Natalie Laplante
Position: Supervisor & Training Coordinator
Years with the service: 4
Medical background: none
Home: Saint-Lazare
Tell us what you were doing before you volunteered with the First Responders:
“I was a stay at home mom. My youngest (of three children) was a toddler. My husband saw an ad in the paper for a people to volunteer with the first responders and he thought I might be interested. I wanted to be at home with my children, but I was finding it difficult to be at home all the time. So I called to find out about joining. And, here I am today!
“I had also been studying policing before I had my third child. When I joined the Saint-Lazare Medical Response Unit, I thought that the kind of leadership roles first responders take would be practical training for me for when I went back into policing.”
Why is the First Responder service important for you:
“I’m the coordinator for our CPR program, and I really believe that lives are saved when the public learns CPR. So, that program is important to me. I also think that we are providing a service that was missing in our community before we started. And, now we have this local group of well-trained emergency medical personnel as well as an emergency service.
“On the person side, I just find that there is always something else to learn about the human body. This is motivating for me. Now, I’m in my second year of a nursing program and I plan to make a career out of medicine.”
For more information about the Saint Lazare Medical Response Unit, joining the first responders, or the CPR Program (RCR Saint-Lazare CPR) call 450.455.5824, e-mail info@saintlazare911.com, or visit online at www.saintlazare911.com.
