For the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Rescue Squad, this year is about celebrating the 50th anniversary of firsts — including the department’s first advanced life support unit and its first female member.
The ambulance known as “Medic 1” was a van which offered, at the time, the best technology in the field and more space for paramedics to help patients.
“It was the first of its kind in the D.C., Maryland, Virginia area, and it delivered advanced care to patients who were in more need than we could give with basic life support,” said Kenneth Holden, president of the rescue squad.
The rescue team’s newest and more advanced ambulance was added to the fleet of smaller ambulances, which younger generations are more likely to recall as the type of vehicle used by the “Ghostbusters.”
Standing in front of one of those older ambulances, on a 1972 Cadillac body, Holden said they were limited in what they could do to help those in need.
“At the time, it was state of the art. But you can see there’s not much room,” Holden said. “And as we developed and needed more equipment, it could not fit there, so we went to the larger units.”
Mary Beth Michos, former Prince William County Fire chief and one of the first female members of Montgomery County Fire Rescue, was a nurse in the 1970s and lead the project to bring Medic 1 to the department.
“This program in itself, was one of the first in the country, not only in this area and so I’m very proud that the county’s getting the recognition it finally deserves,” Michos said.
She said the idea of Medic 1 came from a pilot program by the American Heart Association, which in the early ’70s would send a van staffed with nurses to help heart attack patients.
“We soon realized that the people, the firefighters, the rescue squad personnel, were much more attuned to taking advanced life support care out to the people where they were stricken than we as nurses were at the time,” Michos said.
While standing behind some of the 50-year-old lifesaving devices, Michos said technology has come a long way.
It was, according to Michos, impressive what could be done for patients back then before they reached the hospital.
“The paramedics were able to do procedures that a lot of nurses weren’t able to do inside a hospital, and here they were doing it outside the hospital, and they did it very well, too,” Michos recalled.
The department also celebrated its first female paramedic, Mary Ann Viverette, who recalled when members of the department encouraged her to become a paramedic back in 1974.
“I was physically able to lift the stretchers, and I was interested in the work, so I joined,” Viverette recalled.
Her career path pivoted to law enforcement, and Vivrette spent 28 years leading the Gaithersburg Police Department as chief of police.
Thinking back to her first days as a paramedic, the D.C.-area native said while women were new to serving in the Fire and Rescue service, the Rescue Squad members were very welcoming.
“We were just very fortunate to grow up in this environment, in a welcoming and open county,” Viverette said. “Even though I was considered a trailblazer, I was nothing but welcomed here.”
When asked about how times have changed in the Fire and Rescue service, Vivrette said it has become a lot safer for the first responders.
“I remember riding on the back of Rescue 19, holding the pole, and people driving down Burdett Road bouncing around, and I’m just trying to keep my balance,” Vivrette recalled.
As Michos and Viverette recalled the past, they were joined by Eve Hill, a newer recruit who became a paramedic at the Rescue Squad in 2018.
“It’s pretty cool to get to stand next to people who trailblazed the way to make it possible for me to be here today,” Hill said.
Hill was a junior member of the Rescue Squad in high school, and by 19 years old she was one of the youngest paramedics in the county.
As Hill listened to the stories from the women who were first to join, she said she’s been lucky to serve with many women today: “(I) have always worked on a crew that’s had a lot of women, I’ve always had great female role models to look up to.”
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