Sanford, Magnussen are recognized by hospital

Written by Susan Wolf
Sunday, 15 August 2010 10:00

Two Redding residents were recently recognized by Danbury Hospital during its Emergency Medical Services Week Annual Recognition and Awards Ceremony.

Henry “Hank” Sanford was recognized as the Emergency Medical Responder of the year and Phyllis E. Magnussen was recognized as the Educator of the of Year. Both are members of Redding Fire & EMS Co. #1.

“This is quite an honor,” said Mr. Sanford, pointing to the many other volunteers who work in conjunction with Danbury Hospital each year who are also eligible for the award.

Mr. Sanford has been a member of “The Ridge,” as the fire company is often referred to, for 43 years, and for the last 35 or 36, he said, has been involved with the ambulance. He is a certified EMR (Emergency Medical Responder) and before that an MRT (Medical Response Technician). The MRT designation was replaced by EMR.

Asked about the number of calls he has responded to, Mr. Sanford estimated an average of 100 calls per year. Besides his work on the ambulance, he is also president of the fire company, a position he has held for the last “25 or 26 years.” He is a former deputy chief and a former captain and has served a lieutenant of a tanker “for many years.”

Becoming active in the local volunteer fire company was a natural for him. His late father Earl was the department’s chief and his late mother Violet “ran the emergency number” in the 1950s. Mr. Sanford explained it was the precursor to 911. When the phone in the living room rang, his mother would push a button in the dining room to activate a siren.

His brother, Marshall, is also a longtime member at the Ridge, where he is a former chief and now a lieutenant of a truck, in addition to volunteering at the Bethel Fire Department.

Besides his family history at the fire department, Mr. Sanford said he was a Boy Scout and an Eagle Scout and taught first aid, another step toward an interest in the ambulance service. Both he and Marshall were among the first Emergency Medical Technicians in the state in the 1970s, he said.

Because he worked, said Mr. Sanford, he decided to get his EMR certification instead of the more time-consuming EMT designation. He wanted to be able to continue to help the department and be available to help make a “legal” ambulance crew, which requires two EMTs or an EMT and EMR, “so the ambulance could get out quicker” on a call.

He praised the town’s paramedic intercept program, saying it provides “a giant step up” from an EMT before a patient gets to a doctor. A paramedic can provide more advanced care.

The fire department, along with the West Redding company, have paid daytime ambulance coverage but volunteers take over nights and weekends. Their average response time is three to four minutes, said Mr. Sanford, adding daytime response is quicker because two EMTs are already on duty at the firehouse.

Mr. Sanford works for NEC in its telephone manufacturing division. He is a training course developer and trains online and in person. He and his wife Maryellen, a recently retired Shelton teacher, have one adult daughter, Aileen.

“Redding is very fortunate to have a lot of people who volunteer their time, not just for the fire departments, but also for commissions, the Boys & Girls Club... The volunteers are phenomenal and I’m just part of it,” Mr. Sanford said.

Phyllis Magnussen

“I was beyond honored to be chosen for this,” said Phyllis Magnussen of her recognition. The first recipient of the Educator of the Year Award was Pam Goodpaster, who is a retired Joel Barlow High School athletic director.

“She was my mentor,” said Ms. Magnussen, adding that Ms. Goodpaster still teaches the EMT course at Barlow, and has been doing so since the late 1980s. Ms. Magnussen started helping with the course about the same time. “Now I’m a certified instructor as well,” she said, adding this work is with Emergency Medical Services (EMS).

Ms. Magnussen teaches at the fire department, which does a lot of its own certification and recertification, she said.

“I teach wherever people want me,” Ms. Magnussen said. Besides Barlow, she has taught at the Newtown, Bethel and Stony Hill departments, among others. She is certified by the state to teach, and most of what she does is volunteer.

A free-lance bookkeeper, Ms. Magnussen said with a laugh that she works to support her volunteer habit.

“It’s great fun and I enjoy it immensely.”

Ms. Magnussen is the only woman who has practiced steadily — for almost 26 years — as an EMT at the fire department.

Like Mr. Sanford, her interest was sparked by family members. She grew up in a small Massachusetts town where there was “a very basic fire department.” Her uncle was fire chief and her dad a volunteer firefighter. “They did basic transport care, in a hearse or whatever was available,” she said of this department.

“I’ve been fascinated with medicine all my life,” she said. After meeting the late Hobart “Hobie” Pardee, she was invited to join the department. In July 1983 she did join, but it was the women’s auxiliary, because at that time no women were fire department members. She was certified as an EMT in the spring 1984 and by that September was taking what was then called an EMT-I (intermediate) level certification course.

This was her level for 15 years before the department was downgraded from the intermediate care level to a basic care level because there were not enough volunteers for 24/7 coverage, which was required regardless of the nature of the call, she said. With the paramedic intercept program now in place, the same service as before is provided, but with a higher level of training, she said.

Ms. Magnussen was a member of the group that helped get the paramedic program up and running. She is also treasurer of the fire district, and is a member of the executive board for Northeast Region 5, Emergency Medical Services. She is on the education and training committee for the region as well.

Three years ago, Ms. Magnussen became a certified firefighter at the age of 59. “They kid me and say, ‘We have a grandmother for a firefighter.’ I am proud I did this, but with a lot of help from the younger firefighters.”

Ms. Magnussen and her husband Milton, who works in the maintenance division for Ridgefield Public Schools, have three daughters. Sonja, the oldest, and her husband Cesar Zambrana have two children, Kyle 6, and Ava, 4. Lara Magnussen, the middle daughter, is engaged and lives in Norwalk; and Erika Vibbert, the youngest, took the Barlow course and became an EMT. She belongs to The Ridge and the West Redding Department. She is also a firefighter. She and her husband Roger are expecting twin boys in September. Already Ms. Magnussen is hoping for another generation of firefighters, she said.

“I wish more people would give back to the community. It doesn’t get any better than going on a call and helping people when they need it, and now I can train people how to do that,” Ms. Magnussen said.

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