Amish and Mennonite Volunteers Staff Rural Ambulance Service in Pennsylvania

Amish emergency medical providers in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, serve their communities through a volunteer system that depends heavily on neighbors. In a first-person account published by JEMS, EMS writer and paramedic educator Dr. Bryan Bledsoe describes a day spent with Amish EMTs in the county after a conference in Harrisburg. The writer had met several Amish EMTs at an earlier EMS conference in Baltimore and worked with managers of Lancaster EMS, the county’s EMS system, to arrange the visit.

According to the account, the Amish are an Anabaptist religious group, often called the “plain people,” whose roots are in Germany. Church groups tend to be small and are governed by rules known as the “Ordnung,” which generally forbid electricity, telephones and automobiles, and which also shape clothing and limit contact with the non-Amish world. The source states that the Amish are a peaceful group that does not take part in military service, and that they do not accept government assistance or buy insurance. Members collectively provide for the community’s health care and other needs, though for severe injury and illness the Amish will seek care in traditional hospitals. The source also says that Amish schools are small, generally end at or near the eighth grade, and teach in German and English.

The writer visited the Gordonville Fire and Ambulance Association, where he met about 14 EMTs, some in uniform, over breakfast in Blue Ball, Pennsylvania. The account says that because Amish members cannot drive, non-Amish or Mennonite members drive the ambulances. The department is primarily volunteer. When a call comes in, a siren sounds and a non-Amish member drives a set route to collect Amish members on the way to the station. The service has three ambulances, one staffed around the clock, and it typically responds to 800 to 1,000 calls a year. Advanced life support backup is provided by Lancaster County EMS. The writer notes that the providers were up to date on EMS practice and that a spirit of cooperation was evident among them.

The account also describes a barn fire that had occurred about four days before the visit. By the day of the writer’s visit, the old barn had been cleared and a new one was going up, with costs, supplies and labor provided by the community. The writer also describes riding in an Amish buggy, visiting a buggy shop, and being shown the site of the October 8, 2006, shooting at the Nickel Mines Schoolhouse. According to the writer, the school was razed immediately after the shooting and the site is unmarked, which he describes as reflecting the Amish belief in forgiveness. He writes that he personally sensed the Amish had forgiven the shooter, and says he was both humbled and perplexed by this.

The visit ended with a community fundraiser at the Intercourse Fire Department, which the writer says drew several hundred Amish and non-Amish attendees to raise money for that department. The writer reports that he received a department T-shirt and organic vegetables. (*Bible reference:* The Amish sense of forgiveness, shown in an unmarked school site, reflects a longing for reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18).)

Source: Read the original report