VETERAN FDNY
EMT LIFE CUT SHORT
IN THE LINE
OF DUTY
BLACK AND
PURPLE BUNTING HUNG ON EMS STATION 26 IN THE BRONX
AS MOURNING
BEGINS FOR YADIRA ARROYO
(Friday March 17, 2017 Boston
Rd., The Bronx, NYC) Just south of the intersection of Boston Road and 169th
Street here in The Bronx sits the FDNY EMS Station 26. The EMTs and Paramedics working out of this
House serve the people of the Central Bronx including the Soundview
neighborhood. It was while responding to
a call for assistance from a pregnant woman in Soundview that FDNY EMT,
44-year-old Yadira Arroyo, a mother of five sons, had her life taken in the
Line of Duty. In this day and age as
well as in our City it is easy to become calloused, inured to the senseless
violence we coexist with. While NYC has
the lowest crime rates by any metrics employed and is easily the Safest Big
City in the USA, the circumstances and happenstances of random acts of
heinousness can never be eradicated.
There will always remain among us blackened, evil souls with murderous
intent, completely devoid of any shred of regard for life. A few blocks from here last night two polar
opposite lives intersected leaving Ms. Arroyo dead in the street, just one of
the many streets she knew so well both as a Bronx resident and a 14 year veteran of FDNY
EMT.
We’ll spend no time here nor
waste the space to make any mention of her alleged murderer. His is a story no one among us should have
any interest in. The legal/judicial
process will play out in its infamously snail-like pace, and he will be
afforded a defense pursuant to our criminal justice laws. No, this is not about him. This is about a public servant, a dedicated
mom known widely among friends, neighbors, and coworkers as a shining soul of
decency, compassion, and love. Yadira
Arroyo will forever be honored, remembered, and respected for her service and
sacrifice.
FOR WHOM THE SIRENS WAIL
We live in an unquiet City; a
densely populated highly diverse urban landscape home to over 8.7 million
residents. The acoustics of our building
lined streets, broad avenues and arterial boulevards do not absorb sound as
much as they deflect it outward and upward to
be carried through our concrete canyons. Brick and mortar,
concrete and asphalt, stone, steel and glass are solid and do not absorb the elements of the
omnipresent cacophony that is the soundtrack of our City.
The din is familiar and variable; it ebbs and flows with the cycle of
days turned to nights, in our City that famously never sleeps. The low-grade collective pulse we’re so
attuned to that we don’t even always hear it is regularly punctuated by the wail of
sirens; NYPD and FDNY responding with haste to whatever scenario prompted a 911
caller to request emergency help.
Over 30,000 calls are made to
the 911 system every day in NYC; yes, 11 million times a year calls are placed
and the appropriate Department is dispatched to respond. Typically, we give little thought to what
seem to be an incessant Doppler effected screech of sirens moving to and
fro. Each of those sirens represent an
event, from the mundane to the epic that transpire within the confines of our
Five Boroughs with regularity akin to the tides that rise and fall around
us. Often a serious, very real human crisis has
prompted a call to 911, the nature of the call determines which Department is
initially dispatched to the scene.
Each warble of a moving siren
represents a drama playing out for someone somewhere within hearing distance. We can pause our thoughts to imagine what
might be going on and, even if we do, the minutia of that which takes up the
most space in our consciousness comes flooding back. Perhaps whatever the sirens were responding
to would be sufficiently newsworthy to make the papers or the TV news the next
day. Typically, it is not. The jagged edged truth of the matter is that
each of these dramas requiring NYPD or FDNY are but one-act plays;
circumscribed incidents unfolding in front of a small number of bystanders,
observers and witnesses and an even smaller number of actors. We can be forgiven our rapid dismissal of
what may be unfolding; our City is too crowded, our pace too fast, our lives
too hurried to ponder that occurring out of sight. It quickly becomes an item out of mind.
FDNY TAKES ON EMS
The NYPD and FDNY have very
well defined missions. Each is the
hands down, indisputable premier Department of its kind in the USA; the Police Department that other
cities can only hope to emulate and the Fire Department that over the last 150
years has literally written the books on urban firefighting; all the methods,
tactics, strategy, and ancillary duties of fire science as applied to our
unique urban topography. Emergency
Medical Services were once an unwieldy hodgepodge of ambulance services
provided by municipal and private hospitals under the purview of the HHS. In 1996 all such services were disbanded and
the EMS Division of the FDNY was officially formed. In retrospect It was, one
of the best decisions to have come out of City Hall in many years. To call it a success would be an
understatement.
Too often it seems our EMS and
EMTs receive less public attention than FDNY and NYPD. In reality they are as close to more often
being “first responders” to a 911 call.
They wade into bloody, messy scenes of brutality and carnage, murder and
mayhem often ahead of Cops and Firemen. They charge into active crime scenes out of reflex; they are aggressive in their approach to aiding the suffering.
These men and women MOS are highly trained in all manner of life saving,
injury treatment, emergency medical procedures and practices; they are our
urban medics who often know little of the scenario they are about to walk in
to. Their bravery is second to none,
their ability to function competently, professionally, and coolly amid the
chaos of crisis, the shear noise in small apartments and narrow corridors, on
dark streets and darker alleys where violence had just visited is
remarkable. In fact, they are so good
collectively that we take them for granted; so exceptional individually that we
rely on them without question or doubt.
And now the proud ranks of the
EMS and FDNY will bury one of their own.
Her sons will bury their Mom, friends, neighbors, and many others will
continue to mourn her shocking passing while remembering her glowing life. The Bible teaches that there is “no greater
love” expressed than when one gives one’s own life for another. Yadira Arroyo did just that. She is now in the warm light and embrace of
the Lord, Safely Home…
Bless...
Copyright The Brooding Cynyx 2017 © All Rights Reserved
Copyright Brooding Cynyc 2017 © All Rights Reserved
