Features

On a raw, late-winter Friday afternoon in Durham, fans are streaming toward UNH's Whittemore Center for a Hockey East playoff game between the Wildcats and UMass-Lowell. The sun drops quickly and temperatures follow. A short distance from the hockey rink, behind Zais Hall on College Road, four members of the Durham Ambulance Corps (DAC) brave the chill to perform a daily ritual--washing down two trucks that function as hospitals on wheels. Two of the men, paramedics Brian Cartier and Wayne Smith, are former UNH students. The others are current UNH students, Greg Worsman '03 and Travis Fleury '05. Both are certified emergency medical technicians, or EMTs. All are volunteers, four of a group of 60 that serves the university and the nearby towns of Durham, Lee and Madbury.

"It's part of the professional image," says Cartier after the final rinse. "No one wants to see you showing up in front of their house in a grungy, dirty truck." But there's another reason for the code of cleanliness, especially inside the vehicles: the threat of blood-borne disease makes precautions an absolute necessity.

Along with the cold, there is a sense of anticipation in the air. Because of hockey game celebrations, the paramedics and EMTs of DAC expect a busy evening, and extra care is taken to make sure the ambulances are ready to roll. The trucks--worth more than $125,000 each--are backed carefully into side-by-side bays and electrical systems are plugged in to recharge. The ambulance bays dominate the snug DAC headquarters at 47 College Road, which is leased by the corps from UNH. The place feels similar to submarine quarters, with the bays separating a small, spartan locker room and kitchen at one end, and the day room, information center and bunkroom/library at the opposite end.

Brian Cartier, left, and Jori Argue '03 assist a patient.

Cartier's wife, Rachel Moniz Cartier '01, a certified EMT in her own right, is busy in the tiny galley kitchen, cooking up a chicken parmesan and spaghetti supper for the crew. Visitors drop by, including Karen Verny Henny '88, a 13-year veteran of the corps and an EMS instructor in the UNH kinesiology department, who is on her way to the game.

Eventually, things settle down and the wait begins. Fleury is busy at the computer, creating staff photo-identification cards. Some study; others, after cleaning the kitchen, relax and watch "The Simpsons" after a channel scan reveals the hockey game isn't on. At 10:30, all is quiet; UNH wins the game handily. A few of us, myself included, crawl into cramped but cozy bunk beds for some fitful sleep. I wonder what action the night will bring.

I'm along as a "Fourth Rider," a program that allows potential volunteers to observe the corps in action. The term comes from the ideal ambulance crew, which is three members, although Cartier acknowledges they can respond with two. The "Fourth Rider" program is how many DAC members get their first hands-on experience in emergency medical services.

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