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Pinellas Names Emergency Medical Services Employees of the Year

SunstarPinellasCounty|EMS

The three work for Sunstar, the Pinellas County-owned ambulance system.

PINELLAS COUNTY – County commissioners have named the 2017 emergency medical services professionals of the year.

The awards are given each year in May in honor of Emergency Medical Services Week, locally recognizing the EMS professionals working for Pinellas County’s emergency medical services system.

This year’s Paramedic of the Year is David Sims. After almost nine years at Sunstar Paramedics, Sims has worked his way up to from paramedic to an assistant supervisor and field training officer. He is known to go beyond what is required of him with each individual patient.

“I like to follow up with the patients to make sure I did the right treatment and made the right decisions for them,” Sims said.

Sunstar EMT Reilly Nolan was named Emergency Medical Technician of the Year. Nolan has been part of the Sunstar safety officer program where he teaches and promotes safety procedures to emergency crews so they can stay safe while focusing on helping patients.

“I like to think that I’m that safety net so that my crews can go out there and do a good job and give our residents the best patient care possible knowing they have someone watching their back keeping them safe from all the things they might not even think of at the time,” Nolan said.

Reilly Nolan | Sunstar EMT | EMS
Reilly Nolan
Richard Sherman | Sunstar Dispatcher | EMS
Richard Sherman
David Sims | Sunstar Paramedic | EMS
David Sims II

Pinellas County’s 911 telecommunicator Richard Sherman was named Emergency Medical Dispatcher of the Year. Sherman is a paramedic assistant supervisor at Sunstar.

While handling his duties in Pinellas County during tropical storm Hermine, the 19-year Sunstar employee received an unexpected call from a Pasco County hospital.

The powerless building had been struck by lightning and needed evacuation. Sherman successfully coordinated Pinellas County’s role in the evacuation during a seven-hour period.

“We transported 30 patients from Pinellas County, they all came home safely and it was a successful night,” Sherman said.

The award recipients each received a certificate and a cash award from the Pinellas Federal Credit Union.

A special video profiling the award winners is available online.

EMS Week is celebrated nationally each May by the American College of Emergency Physicians. The theme of this year’s celebration is: “EMS Strong: Always in Service.”

For information about Sunstar Paramedics, go to sunstarems.com.

Photos are screengrabs from Pinellas County video.

Pinellas County | Emergency Medical Services | Sunstar | Ambulance | Paramedics | EMT | Tampa Bay News | TB Reporter

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