History of the ambulance (99-1):

Under their medical director of Dr. Richard Fruehling they became a squad with a lot of firsts in Nebraska.

One Sunbeam article 2016 for appeal of new ambulance:

The first WR volunteer “ambulance service” was started in 1942 when Raymond & Ina Apfel first moved into town. They owned Apfel Funeral Home and would use their hearse to transport people quickly to the hospital until 1971 when they discontinued this practice because the insurance was getting to high. The community saw the need to have a fast response to medical services, so the first ambulance was purchased in 1973. Gerry Hensley, Lew Welch, Dick DeVore, Dave Thienel and others were some of Wood River’s fist EMTs. Gerry and his wife Marian (who was a nurse) were the first husband & wife team at a time when it wasn’t popular for women to be a part of emergency care. People would call them, or the town siren was sounded if help was needed. Eventually they all received pagers to alert them to calls. The Hensley’s billed the patients $25. It didn’t matter if they paid or not.

Since then, ambulances have been purchased in 1986, the traditional white van with orange stripes, in 1996, the first box style was purchased (for $80,000), and the same style again in 2003.

Wood River Rescue soon became a valuable asset to the community and held great pride in their ability to serve the community. They constantly sought ways to improve their skills and services. Under their medical director of Dr. Richard Fruehling they became a squad with a lot of firsts in Nebraska. One of the first was training in manual defibrillation and soon followed by advanced airway systems such as the Combitube®. In 1993 Roger Derr, Gary Mead and Nick Lammers became paramedics, thus making WR the first volunteer paramedic squad in the state of Nebraska. These advancements made them recipients for Service Provider of the Year in 1991 & 2002.
(2016) To this day the ambulance still runs as an Advanced Life Support unit with 13 volunteer EMT’s and 5 paramedics now under the medical direction of Dr. Michael McGahan.

New Ambulance in 1982
In 1982 the WR Vol. Fire Department and Rescue Unit appealed for community support to purchase a new ambulance. The community responded with generous gifts and the ambulance was purchased through donations. The volunteers are again appealing to the community for support in purchasing a new ambulance.
According to Nick Lammers, Rescue Unit Captain, “The most important reason for our decision is the question of the reliability of the current ambulance and secondly, with the higher level of service being provided, we need more room,” Lammers continued, “In emergency situations, timing is critical Our vehicle and equipment has to function 100% of the time at 100%.” He also pointed out that the eleven-year old ambulance is to the point of “nickel and diming” the department to death.
The new ambulance of choice is a middle-of-the-road unit that will meet the department’s needs. Even though the department is trying to economize as much as possible, the ambulance will cost $80,000. The current ambulance would be kept as a backup unit.
In 1982, the department was serviced by a half dozen first level EMT’s. Today, the unit has three paramedics, seven upper level EMTD’s, one EMTA and one person will soon complete their EMTA training. For a community of this size, WR is the only one in the state that can take comfort knowing they have such a high level of training for their rescue squad.

Defibrillator
(1990????)
Nine members of the Wood River Fire Department Rescue Unit were awarded licenses to practice as Emergency Medical Technicians- Defibrillator.
These EMT-D’s were specially trained to use cardiac monitoring and defibrillation equipment. They were then required to pass a Department of Health State Board Examination consisting of three separate tests of their knowledge and skills. Each EMT-D is also tested monthly by a physician to retain their license.
Members of the Wood River Rescue Unit who attained the EMT-D status are: Tom Babel, Roger Derr, Roger Dvorak, Brian Hayes, Bob Heminger, Gerry Hensley, Matt Maloney, Gary Mead, and Dennis Wagoner.
These EMT-D’s are now available on every ambulance call to administer advanced cardiac care using their specialized equipment.

Provider of the Year
The Wood River unit was recently named “1991 Nebraska State Emergency Medical Services Provider of the Year.” 
Brian Hayes, Nick Lammers, Bob Heminger, Dan Smith, Gary Mead, Roger Derr, Tom Babel, Matt Maloney, Roger Dvorak, Rick Kirchner, Gerald Hensley
Roger diligently volunteered for the Wood River Fire Department for 22 years, leading them to raise the level of emergency medical care to Paramedic providers, as he didn’t feel that rural residents should have fewer emergency medical care options than urban residents. He was instrumental in Wood River becoming one of the first all-volunteer Paramedic Rescue Squads in the state.
They were also “2002 Nebraska State Emergency Medical Services Provider of the Year.”

Writing Reports
The written forms were in triplicate copies. One was for our copy, one for the hospital, and the other was for the state. By doing it online, all parties were able to get the information they needed. After every trip to the hospital, the lead medic would fill out a form and write a narrative of what happened. This was usually done in the ER’s nurses’ lounge. The joke used to be that some of the patients were discharged before we even had our paperwork done.

Enarsis (online reporting) in 2003
In 2003, the Enarsis forms were introduced. It was an electronic form filled out online instead of writing the reports at the hospital. It was in September of 2003 that the department first began learning how it was done. All the EMT’s at the time went out to the Maloney farm to view the lesson because they had a projector and could use the wall of their kitchen to view the larger screenshot of the PowerPoint presentation.

EZ IO 2009?
The EZ IO (Intraosseous Vascular Access System) was introduced to help place an I.V. line in a timely manner when regular I.V. attempts fail or are not possible. The bone drill is performed by the paramedics just below the knee or in the cervical area. Others were trained in it, but only the medics could perform it under our medical director. (Dr. McGahan) They were only allowed the one in the leg per our MD. It was used in cardiac patients when the upper half of the patient was occupied with CPR procedures and/or airway treatment. Or in a trauma pt where arms may have substantial injury to them.

In 2015 the ambulance received a grant to purchase a Lucas Device. The device is an electronic machine that does sufficient CPR for great periods of time.
Also, in 2015 the fund raising for a new ambulance began. With much deliberation and spec/design changes we were able to put our order in before the end of the year.
In 2017 through grant money, donations and billing funds a new 2017 ambulance was purchased for $225,000. First 4-wheel drive. It was painted to match Unit 30 fire truck and was put into service in March of 2018.
2019 we changed our medical director to Dr. Eric Fruehling. He is the son of Richard, who was our first medical director. Chelsie Doane is the liaison for Dr. Fruehling so that we can work with her directly. This is nice because Chelsie lives in Wood River and makes communication easier and more efficient.

Call Stories:

In the 80’s, there used to be a pair of sisters (Moore) who would regularly call the ambulance to take them to the hospital just right before Christmas. When the ambulance arrived, they would have their suitcases already packed and would wait at the curb for them. The reason was, at the time St. Francis Hospital had nurses that were nuns and would take great care of them over the holiday weekend. It was at a time when a normal stay at the hospital could be up to a week or more. They enjoyed all the extra attention they received.
The Hensley’s remember having to leave Prom at the high school in their formals to attend to a call.

When raising money for a new ambulance, Roger Derr approached Mrs. Enola McDonald. She told him she would buy it outright and not to bother her asking for money again. Periodically, after she would call for assistance, and once the squad got there, she would often treat them to cookies and coffee.