Chelsie says thanks
The lot of paramedics is not always easy and often not fully appreciated.
That’s part of the reason why a visit to the Drouin ambulance station last Friday by an eight-year-old girl really touched ambulance officer Justin Joubran.
Mr Joubran and his shift partner in late February Ann Conquest were called to attend to young Drouin girl Chelsie Smith after she had an accident involving her push bike.
Ms Conquest was unavailable to be at the station on Friday when Chelsie, and an entourage of family members, arrived to pay a special tribute to the service that transported her to Dandenong hospital.
Despite the trauma of her injuries that have blinded her in one eye and required plastic surgery to cuts around an eye Chelsie was comforted on her way to hospital by a knitted teddy bear the ambulance officers gave her.
Chelsie said on Friday that she wanted to make sure that as many other children that need an ambulance also got a teddy bear.
She presented Mr Joubran with a bag containing 25 “teddies” knitted by a relative.
Mr Joubran described it as “a beautiful gift” and said he was overcome by the gesture.
He said local paramedics liked to have teddy bears in the ambulances for when they are required to transport children.
A dedicated group of volunteers make them and give them to us, he said.
Mr Joubran said it was “so nice” when former patients drop in or make a telephone call to say thanks, some might even leave a card or a small gift.
According to her family Chelsie is back to her bright and bubbly self and back at school.