Lindenwood Community Volunteer Ambulance Corps.

The Lindenwood Volunteer Ambulance Corps was conceived in the basement of a 6-story apartment building in 1969. We were incorporated and began providing service in 1970. Initially, the response area was planned to be the small community of Lindenwood, with approximately 5,000 residents at the time. However, due to the lack of ambulance coverage in South Queens, LVAC's founders had the foresight to include the surrounding communities of Ozone Park and South Ozone Park. In effect, in 1970, LVAC provided primary EMS response to an 8 square mile area that contained 22,000 residents.

At that time, New York City did not have an organized Emergency Medical Service. There were some hospital-based units and several community based volunteer ambulance and fire departments. Our communities were in dire need of our services. Even though New York City began work on a centralized, city based ambulance service in 1974, municipal ambulance service remained spotty in the outer boroughs throughout the 1980s. With the advent of NYC*EMS (which was made a division of the FDNY in 1995), membership decreased. During the 1970s and through the mid-1980s, LVAC boasted a membership of 150-200 volunteers. Currently, we operate with 40 volunteer members.

LVAC provides EMS service to the same communities that we were incorporated to help. However, the neighborhoods have changed over the years. As with the rest of New York City, the population we serve has increased dramatically. From the last census figures, our communities house nearly 40,000 residents. The ethnicity of our neighborhoods has also changed. Over the past 5-7 years, we have seen a large influx of immigrants from South America, Guyana, Jamaica, and India. As with any large immigrant group, there are a lot of people under-represented and who lack medical coverage and proper medical care. That is our new challenge, which we face on a daily basis.

LVAC owns 2 ambulances, L-8 and L-9. We number our ambulances sequentially and over 31 years of service, LVAC has operated 9 separate vehicles. L-8 is a 1998 Road Rescue E-350, which was purchased with the assistance of State Senator Serf Maltese, who secured a $65,000 grant towards it's purchase. L-9 is a 1989 Road Rescue, which was purchased in order to provide better coverage when needed and to serve as a spare vehicle.

All Lindenwood VAC personnel are volunteers, including the Chief and board members. We all take personal time to help our communities. During emergency situations, many of the employers of our members recognize the need for our services and let our members leave work, without loss of pay, to assist the community and our city. This has been true for the recent disasters, as well as blizzards and other adverse weather conditions. Our 40 members are always ready for action.

We run one ambulance on a regular basis and augment our service with the second truck in times of need. LVAC is a member of the Mutual Aid Response Service, an agreement with the FDNY to provide 911 response to our communities. LVAC also responds to direct calls to our dispatcher. We work side by side with Municipal and Hospital based ambulance services during the majority of our operations. During a normal year, LVAC will see over 1500 calls and transport in excess of 800 patients. We also provide standbys at community based events, the largest being the Independent Biker's Toys for Tots Motorcycle Run. This is an event held yearly which draws 7,000 to 15,000 motorcyclists in an effort to bring smiles to autistic children at the Bernard Fineson Developmental Center. LVAC has been the coordinator of the medical coverage of that event for 8 years.

Lindenwood VAC sent L-9 to the World trade Center site in the second wave of responders, operating under the coordination of the NYC Office of Emergency Management. Our unit was staged at the Manhattan side of the Staten Island ferry terminal, which is less than 5 blocks from ground zero. The majority of patients seen by our unit were survivors and local residents trying to leave downtown Manhattan. Most of these people needed facemasks and water. We depleted many of our 'soft' supplies (water, masks, bandages, etc) at this location. L-8 remained in our community to provide EMS coverage to our response area as well as surrounding areas. The entire South Queens area which keeps 5 hospital based ambulances, 5 CFR First Responder FDNY engines, and 3 volunteer ambulance corps was covered by 1 hospital ambulance, 1 volunteer fire dept engine, 1 FDNY engine and our unit.

Due to the fact that phone service throughout NYC was limited, many residents were unable to get a dial tone to even call 911. We had 4 EMTs stationed in our base and publicized our location for walk-in treatment. Our unit, when not responding to calls, stayed on constant patrol.

LVAC maintained staffing levels for 2 ambulances and the base from September 11th through September 17th.

The Flight 587 disaster hit closer to home, literally. Our unit was among the early responders and was staged on Beach 130th Street, 1 block from the main crash site. Our other unit again stayed in our community to ensure our community had coverage.

Lindenwood VAC currently provides EMS care at the BLS-Defibrillation level. We are leading the other regional volunteers in advancing the level of care we provide. We were an early adopter of the Albuterol program for EMTs. We are also the only volunteer ambulance service within the 5 boroughs of NYC to be approved for advanced airway management by Paramedic members on a Basic Life Support unit. We are constantly striving to improve the care we provide and we are proud to be recognized as providing superior medical care by the local community and other responders.