GEMS | 7
is contracted by the town, and eligible to
conduct fund raising activities congruent
with community needs.
A GEM OF A GOOD IDEA
Prior to the establishing of GEMS, Green-
wich had six separate “priority” units
which could provide basic, but not ad-
vanced life support services Four of these
units were interspersed among volunteer
fire departments, while another one was
stationed with the police department and
the last was located “in a lady’s backyard,”
says Tufts. “These priority units didn’t
communicate with each other, didn’t train
with each other and the level of service a
patient would receive was totally depen-
dent on who responded to the call first.”
Tufts, a critical care nurse with experi-
ence in hospital emergency room as well
as pediatric intensive care, had moved to
Greenwich in 1974. During the course
of fulfilling her nursing duties, she says
there were encounters which left her with
the conviction that more could have been
done to help the patients before they were
Fire Chief Peter Siecienski, First Selectman Peter Tesei, Debra Mecky,
Charlee Tufts, Police Chief James Heavey
