8 | GEMS
admitted to the hospital. “I sensed that
we could do more in the field ... services
could be more than a scoop and run,” says
Tufts. That belief was strengthened after
Tufts began volunteering with a fire de-
partment at Sound Beach in Old Green-
wich. She loved working in the field, but
she also grew to especially appreciate
and respect the people with which she
worked, who often tended to her young
son and daughter right there in the sta-
tion whenever Tufts would respond to an
emergency call. In time, Tufts resolved to
help the community transition from basic
to advanced life support services rendered
from a fully capable team of dedicated
and credentialed EMS professionals. She
found the idea had support from both the
area hospital as well as the Department of
Health. She also acknowledges that she
was too young to know what the hurdles
would be and the fact remains there was
also some resistance. Despite the erratic
level of service, frequently slow response
times and areas that lacked service by be-
ing deemed inaccessible, there were some
in the community who didn’t believe there
was a need to invest in a professional EMS
