By Chris Mc Loone

In his keynote, “Everyone Can Be a Hero,” Steve Pegram, chief of the Goshen (OH) Fire Department and ISFSI president, related his wife Mollie’s pulmonary fibrosis diagnosis and her path to recovery from it. It was no easy experience, and he shared with attendees how various people in his life—whether family, friends, fire service brethren, or his community—came together to help him and his family when they were in need after he and his wife had dedicated their lives to helping others. Mollie Pegram is here today because she received a lung transplant.

During his presentation, Pegram introduced attendees to his closest friends, some of whom we knew as leaders in the fire service and some whom we got to know very well by the end of his speech. As Mollie grew sicker and lost her ability to do what she most wanted to do in life—“She wanted to be a mom,” Pegram said—these people played larger and larger roles in their lives.

The presentation was very moving as Pegram traced his and Mollie’s journey from a cough, to her literally dying, to her being brought back, and to her receiving two new lungs. It was a journey that included eight hour round trips from Goshen to Cleveland for Mollie’s care. It involved family and friends coming together to help raise money for Mollie’s care and her lung transplant. They waited, and as days became weeks, and weeks became months, Mollie was on the brink of singing paperwork for a last resort to keep her alive as they waited for a lung donor. As she was signing the paperwork, she got the call—her lungs would be en route. When she got the word, Pegram said it was one of the only times he saw her cry throughout her ordeal.

As his presentation concluded, Pegram reminded everyone to remember their faiths, their friends, and their families and that everyone can be a hero. The heroes in his case were his family, friends, and community and ultimately the donor whose lungs have given Mollie Pegram the ability to be a mom again. Pegram encouraged everyone to become organ donors—allowing everyone in the room to be a hero without even leaving their seats.

New details following the crash at St. Francis medical center. Here are the shocking photos taken after a man who police say was high on PCP crashed into an ambulance around 10:30 Saturday night. It happened right in front of the emergency room entrance. At the time of the crash, two AMR workers were inside of the emergency vehicle. Officials say, one faced minor injuries, but both men saw it coming before the car made impact. "It was very unique, you don't see that very often. If that truck wasn't there, it could be a lot worse than it was. You know, run into the hospital, and possible injure somebody that's located in the hospital," says AMR Supervisor, Ryan Brown. Monroe police say the suspect is 31 year-old Deatrice Jones. Jones was brought into the hospital for treatment after the accident. Upon release, police say he will face charges including DWI, battery of an officer, and resisting arrest. Read More at Myarklamiss

f, like many drivers, you like to have tunes pumping out of your music system to a level that causes your hair to vibrate, then there may be occasions when you're not fully aware that an ambulance is coming up the rear, or perhaps approaching from another street. Of course, this increases the chance of you hindering the progress of the emergency vehicle as it tries to reach some poor fella suffering a cardiac arrest or some other life-threatening condition. At worst, it may mean you don’t notice the ambulance passing through a stop sign, putting it on a collision course with your motor as you enjoy a couple of tracks from one of your lovingly curated playlists. The issue has come to the attention of students in the Swedish capital of Stockholm, prompting them to develop a system that interrupts a car’s music player to alert a driver of an approaching emergency vehicle. Trials for the system, called EVAM, start soon and if successful the team hope to commercialize it. Working at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology, the student’s system involves a radio transmission from the ambulance to nearby FM tuners equipped with Radio Data System (RDS). The signal is sent over the FM band along with the transmission of a text message that appears in the tuner display. It can also lower the music’s volume and put out an audible voice message via the speakers, warning the driver to take extra care. “Often drivers have only a few seconds to react and give way to emergency vehicles,” says industrial engineering student Mikael Erneberg, one of EVAM’s designers. “The optimal warning time is at least 10 to 15 seconds.”