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On a recent volunteering trip to Nicaragua, Unifor Local 302 Paramedic Jennifer Cripton saw an ambulance with no working emergency lights or seat belts, and it often required a push to get started.
She knew something had to be done.
With only six paramedics serving the city of El Viejo, a community of more than 125,000, Cripton realized that an equipped ambulance would be a big help. In her own hometown of St. Thomas, just south of London, four well-stocked ambulances serve a city of 38,000.
“They don’t have any equipment, other than gloves that are donated. They don’t carry medicines. They mostly deal with trauma,” Cripton told the London Free Press recently.
After contacting several paramedic services in Ontario about purchasing a used vehicle, she finally got the response she hoped for from Middlesex London, which agreed to sell her a retiring ambulance.
This fall, a caravan of at least five firetrucks and the ambulance will travel south to deliver the much-needed vehicles to Nicaragua. It was during a similar trip earlier this year that Cripton saw the need for an ambulance in El Viejo.
“We should never be surprised by health care workers reaching out to assist others because that is the fabric of their very being,” Unifor National President Jerry Dias told the recent Unifor Health Care Conference, where Cripton raised about half the money she needed.
Cripton said she was overjoyed and overwhelmed by the support and generosity of her union. Follow her journey at Jennifercripton.com.
