The State Health Department today dedicated Mississippi’s first memorial for emergency medical services personnel who’ve died in the line of duty.
“We have 23 names on the memorial,” says Teresa Windham, State EMS Director.
And she says they hope they never have to add any more names. Those deaths date back to a mid-air collision involving a medical helicopter and a small plane over Houma, Louisiana which killed a paramedic from Gulfport in 1989. A total of seven helicopter crew members are on the memorial including the most recent deaths– the three University of Mississippi Medical Center AirCare personnel who were killed in a crash in March of this year.
Four medics and EMTs have died in ambulance crashes while on calls and two others were hit by vehicles and killed at the scene of accidents. Another, who was hit by a car while working an accident, died of complications from her injuries six years later. Nine names on the memorial are EMS personnel who died after contracting COVID in the line of duty.
The memorial is located on the main campus of the Health Department in Jackson.
