Paramedic Who Treated First COVID-19 Patient Honored

MANATEE COUNTY, FL — The paramedic who treated Manatee County’s first COVID-19 patient last year has been honored by the county.

Sherri Pellien was named Paramedic of the Year for 2020, while Justin Woods was honored as EMT of the Year.

Pellien has been a paramedic with the county for more than 18 years, a spokesperson for the county said. Woods, who is attending paramedic school, has been with the county for five years.

“Sherri and Justin continue to impress me by going above and beyond their duties at Manatee County EMS. These awards reflect the endless hours they have spent keeping the community healthy and safe while serving on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Manatee County EMS Chief James Crutchfield said.

The recipients of these awards are selected by an EMS peer group and then are approved by Crutchfield, the county said.

Pellien recalled that memorable first COVID-19 call in Manatee County in March in a conversation with the Bradenton Herald.

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“When the call came in, everything just kind of stopped,” she told the Herald. “All of the higher ups were alerted, including the health department and doctors. We were like what are we going to do? How are we going to do this? We really didn’t have a solid game plan of how we were going to transport this person. So, we go to the house, and we stage and we’re still trying to call to figure out how we were going to treat him. Thankfully, he wasn’t critical.”

It was a “scary” call, as so much was unknown about COVID-19 at the time, she added. “…no one really knew what this virus was.”

Woods also told the Herald that 2020 was a difficult year for their line of work.

“Toward the beginning, it was very stressful,” he said. “People didn’t know a lot about COVID. They didn’t know exactly what it was. How it would affect people and how it would affect them long term. There was no real understanding yet what caused it. There was a lot of confusion to it.”