Save a life: Just part of the job

By JOAN HRITZ STAFF WRITER

Brenda Manvell takes volunteering very seriously. She logs many hours a week as a captain in the Woodbridge Township Ambulance and Rescue Squad, “In the last six months, I’ve put in about 600 hours,” Manvell said.

This is not unusual, she noted, quickly adding that “all of our volunteers are very hard working and dedicated.”

Headed by Edward Barrett, the squad represents a partnership of the Iselin First Aid Squad, Woodbridge Emergency Squad and Hopelawn Engine Company First Aid Squad. There are 45 volunteer emergency medical technicians, with 15 more in training.

Volunteer shifts go from about 5:30 p.m. to 6a.m., and the paid day staff includes five full-time and 12 part-time employees. Last year, the squad answered about 7,300 calls, Barrett said.

“I’ve always been interested in the medical field,” said Manvell, 51, who joined the squad eight years ago. “I enjoy helping people,” said this EMT, whose duties include driving the ambulance and treating patients. Despite the demands on her time, she has the full support of her two grown children and her husband, William, referring to him as “a saint.”

“In my eight years, I’ve seen it all,” she said. She recalled her “first save,” which occurred when a man choked on a sandwich and went into respiratory and then cardiac arrest. “We resuscitated him, got him back and he survived,” she said.

She deals with the elderly, and “we have a lot of kids’ calls,” sometimes involving fractures, especially by 5- and 6-year-olds who “think they’re Superman and fly off the bed, but they can’t fly,” she said. She even tried, unsuccessfully, to resuscitate a cat overcome by smoke.

“Years ago I was a nurse’s aide” who worked at Union Hospital in Union and JFK Medical Center in Edison, she said.

As a squad member, “it’s rough when you lose a patient since you try so hard to save them. It’s a good feeling to save or help someone, but then you go on with your next call,” Manvell said.