Sister, friends remember paramedic as kind, fun
A Regina paramedic who was awarded a medal for bravery is being remembered for his big heart and million-dollar smile.
“If you were lucky enough to meet him even once, you would never forget him,” Candace Curle said of her brother Robbie Curtis, who served as a paramedic for 18 years before his death last Wednesday.
Curle said Curtis, 37, loved his family fiercely and was full of warmth and loyalty. She called her brother a “free-spirited adventurer” who was a pilot, skydiver and scuba diver. He also worked in Australia for about six months.
“He never needed a bucket list because everything he would have put on it, he just went out and did,” Curle said.
Curtis was the “funniest guy you’d ever meet,” who was a hero uncle to Curle’s four kids. He showed up to birthday parties in uniform and turned on the ambulance siren — that is, when he wasn’t climbing on the roof as Spiderman to entertain his nephew.
Curtis’s death by suicide inspired an outpouring of support, including a wave of friends and co-workers commemorating him with Facebook profile pictures of a memorial ribbon with the Star of Life and a maple leaf. EMS stations in the Regina area lowered their flags to half-mast. Due to the overwhelming support, a celebration of Curtis’s life has been moved to the Conexus Arts Centre on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. All first responders and nurses are asked to wear their uniforms.
Curle has received text messages from her brother’s former patients saying “how amazing he was and how kind, and how he treated their family like they were his own.”
They were both visiting their father in the hospital on Oct. 14, 2016, when Curtis, off-duty, ran to help a police officer struggling with a suspect trying to escape. The man tried to disarm the officer, who called for help. Curtis and a hospital employee ran to assist. “He didn’t hesitate,” Curle said. Curtis was more reluctant to receive the Chief ’s Commendation Award from the Regina Police Service, an award for bravery, this past March.
“We had to force him to go to the ceremony,” Curle said. “He was very humble. He didn’t feel like (the award) was necessary.”
According to his obituary, Curtis “struggled with PTSD and its associated battles” for the past few years.
“We have a lot to say about Robbie’s battle with PTSD but now’s not the time,” Curle said. “But when the time is right, we’ll make sure that his voice is heard ... and our hope is that this tragedy is the impetus for the change.”
Jack Rennie, an advanced care paramedic and advocate, knew Curtis as a charismatic man who took pride in his work.
“My impression of him was someone I really looked up to,” said Rennie. “He was someone that I aspired to be like and that’s pretty common with most people I’ve talked to who knew him and knew of him.”
Rennie, also the Tema Conter Memorial Trust ambassador for Saskatchewan and director of mental health and wellness for the Association of Saskatchewan Paramedics, said such a loss makes paramedics look at their own pain and suffering. For the public, one in 10 people are at risk for PTSD. In paramedics, it’s one in four.
Adding to what Rennie called the “collective grief” of Regina EMS staff is the fact some of Curtis’s colleagues responded and “worked aggressively to save his life at home,” according to Curtis’s obituary.
Steven Skoworodko, president of the Saskatchewan Emergency Medical Services Association (SEMSA), said Curtis’s death by suicide is the third by a paramedic in the province since 2015. He said SEMSA and Wounded Warriors are in discussions about how to fill the need for a dedicated mental health professional with a knowledge of the specific traumas paramedics experience.
Julius Brown, spokesman for PTSD support initiative OSI-CAN, agreed with Skoworodko’s assertion access to resources is a problem, especially in rural areas. But Brown said the stigma barrier is still one of the biggest challenges. He said there has been progress in the past 10 years, something that’s reflected in increased availability of supports since that time, but there’s still a ways to go.
In a statement on Monday, the Saskatchewan Health Authority said counselling and other supports are being provided to all EMS team members at this time.