To the editor:

In the nine years I’ve lived here, I have done the emergency run at least four times. It’s high drama, but too real when it’s me! If I’m going to be the star of that show, I want it to be first class.

At a minimum, I want:

1. Speedy arrival after I call 9-1-1.

2. To be treated with dignity, even when I’m in a most undignified position. They don’t laugh, they don’t patronize and at least one woman is on the team.

3. Tender care when I’m in distress. Tough decision-making when the situation is tense.

4. Keep cool, drive safely, team support from emergency doctor and the hospital ER.

5. Caring attention during the 30-minute drive from my home to the hospital.

To regularly deliver such basics under stress is normal for our EMTs and paramedics. They are a well-oiled team, long experienced working together — some for 25 years or more. And while they work with me, others are jockeying to planned locations to give ambulance coverage elsewhere while mine is in action. On our sprawling two-lane island, such synchronization is essential — and we get it 24 hours a day.

In the last “Pulse” hospital report, on page six, you get a full picture of costs it takes to support the whole system and a bar chart showing increasing demand for services each year for the last 11 years. The number of calls goes up each year, but income from the tax levy remains the same each six years. It takes careful management to be able to regularly pull that off.

I want all of us to continue to have this quality of service every day.

Please vote yes for the tax levy to continue at the same amount.

Theo Wells

Freeland