Honorees

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Year Honored
2011
Honoree
John R Alison
Agency
Halstead Fire & EMS
Agency City
Halstead
Agency State
KS
Last Call
2/2/78
Cause of Death
On-duty Cardiac
Biography
Approaching retirement in the mid-1970s, John Alison was looking for an activity that would keep him busy after he sold his floral shop and greenhouse in Halstead, KS. The nascent EMS movement attracted his attention, and he trained to become an Emergency Medical Technician. It was a continuation of a longtime interest. As a younger man, when many small town ambulance services were operated by funeral parlors, he drove an ambulance for the local funeral home.<br /> <br /> John took the requisite classes to earn his EMS certification and helped the City of Halstead create its volunteer ambulance department as it assumed those duties from the funeral home. No longer would an ambulance ride mean getting as quickly as possible from an accident site to the hospital. Volunteers acquainted themselves with how to administer preliminary in-the-field care to stabilize a patient.<br /> <br /> On February 2, 1978, John received a call from the Halstead Ambulance Department asking if he was available to transfer a hospital patient from Halstead Hospital to their residence in Leon, about an hour away. He did not feel well that morning and asked his supervisor, Steve Bockhaus, if somebody else was available. The transport was not an emergency, and a full crew was not available. Bockhaus remembered John saying he did not want to let the department down.<br /> <br /> After John and his partner completed the assignment in Leon, they stopped for a cup of coffee before returning to Halstead, a standard procedure for many EMS departments. As they sat in the caf?, John collapsed in cardiac arrest. His partner, Alicia Tresh, tried to revive him, but the efforts were unsuccessful. John was declared dead in the emergency room of Allen Hospital in nearby El Dorado, KS. He was 68.<br /> <br /> He posthumously received the Harold Rea award, which is given annually to a person who "best promotes the City of Halstead." In 2006, John became the second individual to be added to a memorial plaque honoring those who died while providing services to the City of Halstead.<br /> <br /> Honored 2011