Los Fresnos Community Celebrates EMS Week

by Tony Vindell/LFN

The jobs first responders do whenever an emergency situation arises are recognized every year during National Medical Emergency Services Week, this time held May 20-26.

And although no pompous ceremonies are set up to mark the vital roles paramedics play, they nevertheless deserve respect from the general public.

Los Fresnos EMS has 22 medics who responded to an average of five calls each day in 2017.

Gene Daniels, EMS director and chief with Los Fresnos Volunteer Fire Department, said EMS Week was started by President Gerald Ford in 1974 to highlight the importance first responders play in a community.

As a show of appreciation for the jobs they do, the three major hospitals in Cameron County treated the medics with food and snacks during EMS Week.

The hospitals are: Valley Baptist Medical Center, Harlingen Medical Center and Valley Regional Medical Center.

Los Fresnos EMS operates on an annual budget of about $860,000, a figure that is soon to reach $1 million.

The non-profit organization is self funded and puts a lot of the money it makes back into the community.

An example is the $1.8 million EMS/FD facility under construction along Texas Highway 100 east of town.

The building is scheduled to be completed this summer or by early fall.