LFD paramedic honored for service to patients, leadership in firehouse

LACONIA — Looking back, it seems obvious that Scott Lewandowski would go into the fire service. But it wasn’t until he was nearly out of high school that he made up his mind to become a firefighter and emergency medical technician.

That decision proved to be a good one, as Lewandowski was named the Provider of the Year at the EMS Awards Banquet, hosted by LRGHealthcare and held May 19 at Church Landing in Meredith.

Lewandowski, a 32-year-old paramedic who has been with Laconia Fire Department since 2012, said he was taken completely by surprise by the honor.

“I could not have been more surprised,” Lewandowski said. He was working on the night of the banquet, and he didn’t even figure it out when someone showed up to take his place on shift so that he could attend the event.

When you’re in the fire service, there’s only two reasons why an unexpected substitute shows up for you. Usually, it means you’re about to get in big trouble. “I haven’t done anything wrong,” Lewandowski said he was thinking to himself.

“This turned out a lot better than I thought it would,” he said.

Shawn Riley, deputy chief at LFD, said Lewandowski was nominated by LRGHealthcare staff for the care he is known to provide to patients by the time they arrive at the emergency department. At the fire station, Riley said, Lewandowski is known as the “go-to” person for any question regarding emergency medicine, and he has taken both official and unofficial roles in guiding EMS service for the department.

“He is definitely a leader among his peers,” Riley said.

In addition to his shifts in Laconia, Lewandowski also works part-time in the Concord Hospital ER. His fiancee, Miranda White, also works at Concord Hospital, in the intensive care unit, and like Lewandowski, comes from a firefighting family..

Lewandowski grew up in Swanzey, with fire service on his mother’s and father’s side. He can trace firefighting back four generations in his family, but it took a while for him to realize he was going to follow the same path.

“I didn’t figure it out until high school, that this would be something good to do for a career,” he said.

He started by taking classes at Lakes Region Community College, then interned in Alton’s Fire Department. He worked at other Lakes Region fire departments before coming to work in Laconia. He and White live in Northfield.

Since coming to Laconia, Lewandwoski has earned both his bachelor’s and his master’s degrees, the latter in public administration.

He said he finally made the decision to become a firefighter and EMT while going on some ride-alongs in a fire explorer program, and he realized that there are many different career paths within the industry.

“There’s so much versatility, it’s not just firefighting, it’s not just being a paramedic, this field is so wide, and then even after you retire, there’s such a wide set of skills that you can get,” he said.

And, he said, he enjoys the reward of going out on a call and finding someone in distress, and in a short amount of time leaving them in a much better condition than he found them.

“Not every call do you feel you’ve made a huge difference,” he said. But, often, he does, though he shies away from the phrase “life-saving.” “To me, it’s just doing my job, I don’t look at it that way.”

In fact, almost immediately after the awards banquet, Lewandowski went out on a call for a person with what he said was a “dangerous cardiac rhythm.” He was able to administer a medication that brought the heartbeat back into a regular pattern.

“They were hurting, for sure, by the time they got to the hospital, they were comfortable and talking,” he said. But, he added, he sees himself not as a great individual, but as a player on a great team.

“We don’t ever do anything alone here,” he said. For example, his colleague, Trevor Greene, was on that particular call with him, and had Lewandowski not been there, Greene could just as well have assisted the patient. “There are so many great people that work here, it makes it easier.”

“I think we really do a great job here at EMS as a department, it could have been anybody,” to receive the award, Lewandowski said.

In addition to Lewandowski, several other awards were given at the banquet. Alton and Sanbornton Fire Departments, and Stewart’s Ambulance, each received a Unit Citation. Paul Racicot Awards were given to Matt Gilman and Duncan Phillips, and Lifetime Achievement Awards went to Rae Mello-Andrews, Raelyn Cottrell and Tim Rowell. The banquet was sponsored by LRGHealthcare, ClearChoiceMD, Transformative Healthcare and Dr. Paul Racicot.