For the third time in seven months and the last of 2022, the Killingworth Ambulance Association is offering a CPR/AED class to the public. It will be held Saturday, Dec. 17, at the KAA’s Route 81 headquarters at 9 a.m.

The class, which typically lasts approximately three hours, is the second in two months and the third since a May 6 course that attracted eight students, all of whom passed. It is open to all those over the age of 15 and is free for Killingworth residents.

Non-residents will be charged a $20 fee.

The course will be taught by KAA board member and former EMT Don McDougall, who this summer marked his 51^st year with the Ambulance Association. McDougall normally teaches three to four CPR classes a year, but that schedule was interrupted by the COVID outbreak in 2020.

This was the first year the course was resumed.

“When someone has a heart attack,” said KAA president Dan O’Sullivan, “it is imperative to keep oxygen through their system … and as soon as possible. This is what CPR does. If there is someone on the scene to start CPR immediately, the chances of the patient to not only survive … but to retain… all mental functions are much better. Applying CPR until the first responders can get there and take over is truly a life-saving act. You may very well save a life.”

Because space is limited, interested persons are urged to pre-register by contacting McDougall at donmcdougall2@comcast.net.

For more information, please contact the KAA at (860) 663-2450.

For the second time in seven months, the Killingworth Ambulance Association will offer a CPR/AED class on Saturday, Nov. 12, at its Route 81 headquarters. The session begins at 9 a.m. and is expected to last approximately three hours.

The class follows a May 6 CPR course, which was the first time in two years – or since the outbreak of COVID – that the KAA offered it. Eight persons attended, and all passed.

As it was then, the class will be taught by KAA board member Don McDougall, who this summer marked his 51^st year with the Ambulance Association. McDougall normally teaches three to four CPR classes a year, but that schedule was interrupted in 2020 by COVID.

Now the class is back and open to all persons over the ages of 15.

The course is free to all Killingworth residents. Non residents will be required to pay a $20 fee.

“People ask: Why should I take it?’ “ McDougall said of CPR. “The great percentage of heart attacks happen at home, and you could be the only person there. If you call an ambulance, it could be 10-15 minutes before somebody gets there. In the meantime, you could be saving a loved one or family member.”

Because space is limited, interested persons are urged to pre-register by contacting McDougall at donmcdougall2@comcast.net.

For more information, please contact the KAA at (860) 663-2450.

(Pictured above, L-R): Lisa Barbour, James Fretz, Mary Robbenhaar-Fretz and Dan O’Sullivan)

When the Killingworth Ambulance Association (KAA) held its annual dinner Sunday night, it followed a familiar script in recognizing its top three responders of 2021-22. Except this time there was nothing ordinary about what it celebrated … and not so much because of the people involved.

Because of the calls they answered.

Dan O’Sullivan, president of the KAA, responded to 283 of them from October, 2021 through September, 2022 … and if that seems like a lot, it’s because it is. Not only was it more than half of the 538 responses answered by the KAA during that period; it was nearly twice that of runners-up James Fretz and wife Mary Robbenhaar-Fretz.

They had 143 each, while Lisa Barbour checked in with 114.

O’Sullivan and Fretz were two of the top three responders in 2020-21, too, when 154 responses took first place. This time, however, O’Sullivan did more than lap the field. He set a KAA response record, breaking — no, obliterating — the previous gold standard of 207 set by Lisa Anderson in 2019-20.

“I don’t know how to describe it,” said Mike Haaga, the KAA’s Chief of Service. “What’s better than astounding?”

Answer: 283. Now the question: How did O’Sullivan do it?

“I just like helping,” he said, “and this is the most direct way because it involves people who are in immediate need. So it’s satisfying from that perspective.  I know it’s not for everybody, but it’s something I have the skills and inclination to do. So I make it a high priority.”

O’Sullivan typically is on call Wednesday days and Thursday nights. But, like other EMTs with the KAA, he often jumps in to cover absences when needed. That happened after Fretz underwent shoulder surgery earlier this year and missed over five months.

“For a while,” O’Sullivan said, “it looked like I might break 300 (calls). But in August and September things slowed down a little.”

(Mike and Marguerite Haaga)

O’Sullivan didn’t. One summer evening he responded when no ambulance was available for what turned out to be an automobile fatality on Route 81. O’Sullivan wasn’t on that evening’s schedule, but when he heard an urgent call for available EMTs and a request for Life Star, he voluntarily drove to the scene.

“Our ambulance had gone out (on another call),” he said, :”so I decided to go (to the accident). Sometimes I’ve done that, and I’m more in the way.  But this time I was glad I’d gone.”

O’Sullivan was able to assist with the victim who survived.

According to KAA information, responses in 2021-22 increased 19.3 percent from the 459 a year before …and that figure was up significantly from the 379 in 2019-20. When the KAA was first formed in 1971, there were fewer than 50.

Also recognized Sunday evening were Mike and Marguerite Haaga for their 25 years of service as Killingworth Ambulance EMTs. Mike is the KAA’s Chief of Service, and Marguerite is its Vice President. With 25-year pins, the Haagas are part of a select group. They’re two of only three active Killingworth Ambulance EMTs with 25 years’ experience. Board member Mark Clifton is the third.

“This is one of those things where it’s like: Where did the time go?” said Haaga. “It just goes so fast.”

Sandy Castlevetro was also honored with the Haagas Sunday. The managing member at Shared Response Health Systems, Castlevetro has been associated with the KAA for the past 25 years.

 (The following letter was submitted to the Killingworth Ambulance Association by Killingworth resident Elizabeth Proctor. With her permission, we are reprinting it … along with photos she provided … to demonstrate the value of first responders and how they can be of vital importance to their communities).

To whom it may concern,

My name is Elizabeth Proctor, and I delivered my daughter, Arabella Proctor, at home on April 25, 2022. She was born at 3:22a.m, and everything was wonderful and went as planned with my midwives.

But that changed 10 hours later when she started having aepnic episodes.

I called 911, and two Killingworth EMTs arrived shortly afterward to help. They were so wonderful and knowledgeable that I knew my daughter was in capable hands. However, when they transported her by ambulance to Yale New Haven Hospital, she had another episode … and my world began to fall apart.

Arabella started having full-body seizures and stopped breathing again. She had to be hooked up to a ventilator –which she was on for five days – as well as the necessary medical support to keep her alive. When she received an MRI, we learned that she suffered multiple strokes and was having continuous seizures that required three different medications to stop.

It took three days for that to happen. She spent 28 days in the NICU before she was allowed to go home.

She has lost her vision due to the strokes, and we don’t know if her vision will come back. She has motor delay, too, and we won’t know until she’s 2 if that has something to do with cerebral palsy. She sees the chiropractor three times a week to do craniosacral therapy … she does physical therapy once a week … and she sees Birth to Three two times a month. She also sees multiple specialists every few months.

So she has a long road ahead with doctors and specialists, and we are taking it day by day.

A wonderful Killingworth woman named Jessica DeAngelo was so kind to start a GofundMePage for my daughter’s medical journey. If anyone is interested, this is the page link. The updates of her journey are on there as well: https://www.gofundme.com/f/liz-proctors-family?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet.

My daughter is a happy, snuggly baby and we are so thankful that she has pulled through. We are also grateful for the Killingworth Ambulance service and Yale’s NICU Hospital for their care. She wouldn’t be here without them.

For the second time in six weeks, the Killingworth Ambulance Association will conduct a “Stop the Bleed” class.  The course is scheduled for Saturday, Sept.24, at the KAA’s Route 81 headquarters.

It will begin at noon, is free and is open to persons 12 years and older. However, all those attending are required to wear masks and urged to complete RSVP forms that can be found here: (RSVP – Killingworth Ambulance Association).

“Stop the Bleed” is a nationwide awareness campaign (STOP THE BLEED – Save a Life | Stop The Bleed) launched in 2015 by the White House and Department of Homeland Security. It is designed to empower bystanders with the training necessary to deal with traumatic events and emergency bleeding situations before help arrives.

The KAA conducted several “STB” classes annually until the COVID pandemic emerged in 2020. Now it’s back, with its first class of this calendar year held Aug. 13 with 14 students.

The value of the course was underscored in October, 2019, when a state trooper responding to an accident at Middletown’s Vinal Technical High School implemented a “Stop the Bleed” kit to treat what was termed “a catastrophic injury” that involved profuse bleeding.

Officials later said quick thinking by the state trooper may have saved the victim’s life.

The KAA first offered “Stop the Bleed” classes in July, 2017, making Killingworth the first Connecticut town to have its citizens certified.  Since then, it has conducted 36 classes and had “Stop the Bleed” stations” installed at the Killingworth Public Library and Town Hall.

For more information, contact the Killingworth Ambulance Association at (860) 663-2450.

If you haven’t registered for the Killingworth Ambulance Association’s upcoming EMT class, don’t worry. You still have time.

You just don’t have much of it.

The course will begin Monday, Aug. 29, at 6 p.m. at the KAA’s Route 81 headquarters and is expected to run approximately three-and-half months. Classes are held on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6-10 p.m. and five Saturdays from 8 a.m.- 4 p.m. and protective facemasks are not required.

Instruction will include CPR, patient assessment and treatment, with the course led by Mike and Marguerite Haaga. Both are EMTs and KAA board members and have taught the class for over 20 years.

However, the last time they completed an EMT course was in the winter and spring of 2020.  Originally scheduled for September, 2019, the class was postponed because of low enrollment and resumed in January of the following year.

Despite extraordinary circumstances that included protective facemasks, social distancing and one student who attended from Idaho via Zoom, the class was a success. Ten individuals participated, and eight became certified EMTs – including six who joined the Killingworth Ambulance Association.

COVID canceled the 2020 fall program, and a shortage of students erased last autumn’s course.

The class is six college credits and highly recommended for persons interested in pursuing medical careers.

“Not only is it a chance to help out the community,” said Marguerite Haaga, “it’s a good step toward something in the science, medical and nursing fields.”

For more information, please contact the Killingworth Ambulance Association at (860) 663-2450.

The Killingworth Ambulance Association will hold its first “Stop the Bleed” class of 2022 on Saturday, Aug. 13, at the KAA’s Route 81 headquarters. The course, which begins at noon, is free and open to all persons 12 years and older.

The class typically lasts one to one-and-a-half hours, with participants required to wear protective facemasks. All those interested are asked to complete RSVP forms available here ( RSVP – Killingworth Ambulance Association) or in the “Classes” section on this site’s pull-down menu.

“Stop the Bleed” is a nationwide awareness campaign (STOP THE BLEED – Save a Life | Stop The Bleed) launched in 2015 by the White House and Department of Homeland Security. It is designed to empower bystanders with the training to deal with traumatic events and emergency bleeding situations before help arrives.

Its value was underscored in October, 2019, when a state trooper responding to an accident at Middletown’s Vinal Technical High School implemented a “Stop the Bleed” kit to treat what was called “a catastrophic injury” involving profuse bleeding.

Officials later said quick thinking by the state trooper may have saved the victim’s life.

The KAA first offered “Stop the Bleed” classes in July, 2017, making Killingworth the first Connecticut town to have its citizens certified.  Since then, it has conducted 23 classes and had “Stop the Bleed” stations” installed at the Killingworth Public Library and Town Hall.

For more information, please contact the Killingworth Ambulance Association at (860) 663-2450.

Maybe it’s the fourth time that’s a charm.

For the fourth time in the past four years, the Killingworth Ambulance Association has plans to offer an EMT class in the fall. That’s the good news. The bad is that the last three attempts at autumn instruction had to be canceled or postponed.

Nevertheless, instructors Mike and Marguerite Haaga will try it again this fall, with the first class beginning Monday, Aug. 29, at 6 p.m. at the KAA’s Route 81 headquarters. The course is expected to last three-and-a-half months, with instruction on Mondays and Thursdays from 6-10 p.m. and five Saturdays from 8 a.m.- 4 p.m.

Mike Haaga is the KAA’s Chief of Service. Marguerite Haaga is its Vice President. Both are EMTs and have taught the class for over two decades. Instruction will include CPR, patient assessment and treatment. Protective facemasks are not required.

The last time the Haagas completed an EMT course was in the winter and spring of 2020. Originally scheduled to be held in September, 2019, it was postponed because of low enrollment and resumed in January of the following year.

Despite extraordinary circumstances that included protective facemasks, social distancing and one student who attended from Idaho via Zoom, the class was a success. Ten individuals participated, and eight became certified EMTs – including six who joined the Killingworth Ambulance Association.

COVID canceled the 2020 fall program, while a shortage of students erased last autumn’s course.

The class is six college credits and highly recommended for persons interested in pursuing medical careers.

“Not only is it a chance to help out the community,” said Marguerite Haaga, “it’s a good step toward something in the science, medical and nursing fields.”

For more information, please contact the Killingworth Ambulance Association at (860) 663-2450.

(Pictured above: Kylie Studzinski with her parents at HKHS Senior Awards Night)

Haddam-Killingworth senior Kylie Studzinski is this year’s recipient of the Killingworth Ambulance Association scholarship, and she is as rare as she is deserving.

Honored at Wednesday’s Senior Awards Night at Haddam-Killingworth High School, Kylie is the first lone scholarship winner in recent memory for the KAA, which awarded 18 the previous four years – including six in 2021.

But Kylie Studzinski deserves to stand alone.

An accomplished student, she received four scholarships Wednesday –including the KAA award – and will attend the University of Delaware this fall where she plans to major in neuroscience.

“I have a thorough interest in how neurotransmitters contribute to how humans act the way they do,” she said in her application essay, “and I intend on getting my questions answered through extensive research. I hope that in my undergraduate years I can do bench-level research and work my way up to clinical research. This will serve me well for a career in medicine.”

Killingworth Ambulance Association scholarships are granted annually and are narrow in scope. Recipients must meet four criteria: 1) They must be Killingworth residents, 2) attend a two-or-four-year college the following fall, 3) plan to major in the medical, emergency services or allied fields and carry a GPA of 3.0 or higher.

Kylie Studzinski checked all of those boxes.

In addition to a superior academic record, she was involved in cross country for four years and participated in indoor and outdoor track, running the 800, mile and two-mile races. She also logged 80 hours of community service — volunteering to work at vacation Bible school, assisting with cross-country meets and banquets at the H-K Middle School and working with the Hartford Kids Christmas organization.

But that’s not all.

She was also active in a youth coalition group called IGNITE, which specializes in drug prevention programs but is broader in scope – with Kylie this past winter organizing a Donation Day for the St. Vincent De Paul homeless shelter in Middletown and the Haddam Community Closet. A member of the group the past three years, she is co-president.

Now her focus is on her next four years of education … except in Kylie’s case, it’s five.

“Once I enter my senior year of college,” she said, “I will apply for the 4 + 1 program, where I can get my masters degree in only one year. I am also hoping to do as much lab research as I can while working toward my undergraduate degree to further prepare me for schooling after that.”

Studzinski’s achievement marks the third time in the past four years that KAA scholarships have gone to an all-female class. There were six in 2019, and two one year later. Eleven of the past 14 recipients have been females, with last year’s class that included Thomas Perry, Ryan Luther and Sam Luther, breaking the run.

Quick question: Let’s say you’re an EMT responding to an emergency call in the middle of the night. You arrive at your destination, find a shared driveway with multiple mailbox numbers but aren’t sure which house corresponds to which address.

What do you do?

That’s a question Killingworth Ambulance Association EMTs confront often enough that they’re making a public appeal, reminding local residents to post visible address numbers identifying their homes. Otherwise, they said, first responders can get lost.

That sounds as logical as it is rudimentary. But, apparently, the message hasn’t gotten through.

“The biggest problem,” said Mike Haaga, the KAA’s chief of service, “is common driveways. There seem to be a lot of them in Killingworth, and some are long driveways. They’re kinda like private roads, with a house on the right and one on the left … and at the end of the road, they could have a number of mailboxes. When you stand there, how do you know which is which?”

You don’t.

“You see that,” said EMT James Fretz, “and you go, ‘Uh-oh. I don’t know if we can find it.’ “

One responder recalled a recent call where two homes were located in close proximity to each other, yet only one mailbox appeared in front of the two. Because both had reasonably long driveways, the ambulance backed down the shorter of the two, with EMTs hoping they’d come to the correct address.

They hadn’t. Result: A delay that could’ve been … but wasn’t … critical to the victim.

“I’ve had one house in the past month where the ambulance responded three times,” said an EMT. “And two of the three times we went down the wrong driveway … because neither they nor their neighbor had a house that was marked. And that’s just during the day. During the night, it’s really hard to find them.”

OK, we’ve established it’s a concern. What can you do? EMTs have a variety of suggestions, and let’s get started.

• First and foremost, if you have a mailbox at the end of your driveway, have it marked with visible numbers on both sides (preferably in reflective figures). Emergency rescue vehicles could be coming from either direction.
• If you’re on a shared driveway with multiple mailboxes, make sure to post an address number where it can be seen by first responders. Trees were mentioned as one possibility.
• If there’s more than one person inside the home, it can be helpful for an individual to stand outside and direct emergency vehicles to the address.
• If it’s an evening call, turn on lights inside the home … if, that is, it’s possible. “I hate waking up people in the middle of the night,” said one EMT, “and it’s the wrong house.”
• “Sometimes,” an EMT said, “the number is on the front of the house, but you can’t see it because the house is 100 yards in from the road. When a call comes in, it can be helpful if the victim tells the 911 operator something like the color of the house. But that can happen only if the person calling can give them the information. Often, they’ve fallen and can’t.”
• Several years ago the KAA appeared at local fairs and civic events to hand out porch light bulbs that blinked on and off after they were activated. That helped in emergencies, especially at night, with the flashing lights serving as a distress signals to first responders

“A good decision,” Plato once said, “is based on knowledge and not on numbers.” The Killingworth Ambulance Association would disagree. Its EMTs believe a good decision is based on knowledge AND numbers.

“Every little bit helps,” said Fretz. “As long as people have a number that can you see … that’s the important thing. The important thing is just to get a number on the mailbox.”

The KAA’s advice dovetails with information documenting a recent surge in responses – especially with falls. According to the Ambulance Association, it answered a record 496 calls in 2021, up 34 percent from the previous year (370), with 117 of those responses the victims of falls. That’s a 64.7 percent hike from 2020 (71).

Bottom line: Identify your home with visible numbers. Your life could depend on it.

“For those who don’t think it’s important,” said Haaga, “I’d tell them, ‘It’s not. It’s not important at all … unless you want to have an ambulance or fire truck show up at your house.’ ”