It was early 1984, and the Concord (N.H.) Fire Department was looking to hire paramedics. Sandy Hillsgrove heard of the opportunity from a classmate at New Hampshire Technical Institute (NHTI). She’d done some ride time with the department and had once had a memorable altercation there with a colleague.
He was smoking and thought it would be funny to blow smoke in her face. Disgusted by his crudeness, Hillsgrove grabbed him by the front of his shirt and told him, “If you ever do that again, I will take that cigarette and shove it up your ass.” He took a couple of steps back, mouth hanging. His cohorts from work and Hillsgrove’s classmates stood with mouths agape. A moment passed, then in unison: “Way to go, Sandy!”
A Career of Firsts: Meet New Hampshire Paramedic Sandy Hillsgrove emsworld.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from emsworld.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
On April 1, 1980, Richard Lamie was hired by Frisbie Memorial Hospital in Rochester, N.H., as the first employee and supervisor of its newly formed Frisbie Memorial Hospital Ambulance Service. April 2020 was the service’s 40th anniversary and Richard’s 40th year with it.
Lamie graduated from St. Francis College at the University of New England in Biddeford, Maine, with a degree in psychology and minor in sociology. While there he worked in the school infirmary doing cleaning and handing out bandages and cough syrup to students who didn’t feel well. In the evening, when the nurse was off duty, students would come in complaining of cough and cold symptoms. Lamie would treat them with a mixture he’d concoct in the infirmary using codeine and Sudafed.