|
 Jim
Werries is rightfully considered an EMS legend.
Jim became an EMICT in 1973 before there was any formal
Paramedic curriculum. He
was “grand fathered” as one of the first EMICTs in Kansas after
the certification was statutorily recognized.
Interestingly enough, he became an EMT in 1974.
He was the President of the Kansas Ambulance and Rescue
Association in 1974 and was instrumental in the name change to the
Kansas Emergency Medical Technicians Association, becoming the first
Executive Director.
Jim
was very active in pre-hospital care before certification was
recognized in Kansas. His
career started in 1966 as an ambulance attendant with the former
Metropolitan Ambulance Service in Wichita and was promoted to manager
of the company’s Newton branch in 1967. He became Newton’s first
Ambulance Department Chief in 1970.
In
1973, working with a physician in Newton, he designed a method of
defibrillating patients out of the hospital and was one of two of the
first ambulance attendants to defibrillate heart attack victims in the
field.
Jim
retired on December 31, 1996 after 30 years in EMS.
Although no longer active in patient care, he still remembers
the early days and his successful efforts to bring Kansas EMS into the
21st century.
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