Ryan O’Connor has spent more than a decade handling thousands of calls while working as a volunteer emergency medical technician with the Snyder Fire Department.
Most came evenings and overnights because O’Connor works full-time in the banking field.
The way he sees it, that service didn’t matter much to the state Bureau of Emergency Medical Services last spring, in the midst of a pandemic, after a miscommunication within the all-volunteer department caused O’Connor’s EMT recertification paperwork to be sent six days after his certification expired.
A bureau official barred him from handling emergency medical calls until he repeated a beginner-style refresher course at his department’s expense.
“All the missed time from family and sleepless nights responding to EMS calls apparently means nothing to the New York State Department of Health," O’Connor told The Buffalo News.