Honorees

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Year Honored
2001
Honoree
Jennifer L LaFene
Agency
North Central EMS
Agency City
Marblehead
Agency State
OH
Last Call
11/7/00
Cause of Death
Struck at Scene
Biography
Wife, mother, hero. "When someone is killed in the line of duty there is nothing else that that person could ever do. I mean what else could she give?"<br /> <br /> On November 7, 2000 Jennifer Lafene saw an elderly man standing on the side of a busy highway. She asked her partner to please turn back so she could check on him. She stated that "she could not live with herself if he needed help and she did nothing." They had turned around and gone back and Jennifer had crossed the highway. She was engaged in a conversation with the gentleman who had stopped to rest, when she was hit and killed by a passing minivan. Jennifer and her partner had been en route to receive a patient for an ambulance transfer when the accident occurred.<br /> <br /> Jennifer, 30, worked as a paramedic for North Central EMS in Milan, Ohio. She had been active for nine years in emergency care, and had been a paramedic for the past six years. She was a CPR and first responder instructor, as well as a clinical preceptor for paramedic students. She was a paramedic instructor at the ER-DOC Paramedic Training Program. Ms. Lafene was a substitute teacher for all grade levels at Bellevue's School of Immaculate Conceptions, and had been a full time sixth-grade schoolteacher at the school in 1998 and 1999.<br /> <br /> "We lost a friend and comrade. You can't give any more than Jen did. It was a random act of kindness and she didn't see the risk. She put someone else's safety before her own," North Central EMS Executive Director Don Ballah said. She often put herself in jeopardy by responding to calls where dangerous power lines were involved or people were fighting. She loved helping people," he stated. "She is viewed by everyone as a hero."<br /> <br /> "I used to call her my angel because she was," stated William Lafene, husband of Jennifer, who is a paramedic and firefighter.<br /> <br /> Jennifer L. Lafene is survived by her husband William Lafene, daughter Kristen, and son Benjamin, of the home. Also surviving are father, Herb Smith; mother and stepfather, Judy and Bill Jones; stepsisters Pam Smith Carper, Kim Barnes, Cyd Romey, and Kyle Lucas; and step-brothers Jeff, John, and Todd Smith.<br /> <br /> Honored 2001