Thank you Terry, thank you very much
Yarmouth paramedic of 44 years honoured for his mentorship, respect for patients
Officially, Terry Muise was a paramedic for more than four decades. Unofficially, he did his first ambulance call at the age of 13. He had broken a window at Huskilson’s in Yarmouth and was working there to pay off the damage. Back then, the funeral home was also an ambulance service. A call came in.
Someone asked, “Terry, are you scared of somebody having a heart attack?”
He said no.
They said, get in.
From that first ambulance experience, he was hooked. He knew one day he would help to save lives. What later followed was a career spanning 44 years.
His impact is even greater when you factor in all of the paramedics, young and old, that he has mentored – estimated to be at least 75 per cent of the paramedics in southwestern Nova Scotia, along with others working
elsewhere in the province.
On Wednesday, Feb. 9, EHS paramedics, Yarmouth Regional Hospital ER and hospital staff, police officers, firefighters, friends and family gathered outside Muise’s Prince Street home in Yarmouth to pay tribute to him.
This time, it was Muise’s health that was in peril.
About four weeks earlier, Muise had been diagnosed with cancer. He was given just weeks to live. When the tribute was planned, it was now down to days.
By the morning of Feb. 9, however, it was known he would not survive the day.
As his first-responders family stood outside his home, inside Muise, 62, took his last breaths. He died surrounded by family and close friends.
One of those close friends was Danny Deveau, a fellow paramedic who had been Muise’s partner for around six years. When the two each became advanced care paramedics, they were split up in their shifts.
But by then, Deveau had already learned a lifetime of wisdom and compassion from Muise.
“He was just one of those guys that once you met him, you liked him. And he was always willing to teach,” Deveau says. “Anybody that had questions would go to Terry.”
“We had done a recruitment in Ontario and had gotten quite a few recruits,” he says. “The ones that came here, they just gravitated towards Terry. He just had that personality.”
RESPECT AND MENTORSHIP
It was in how Terry cared for his patients that Deveau says he learned the most – from the care Muise extended, to how he would always smooth out the wrinkles in the sheets before putting a patient on the stretcher.
To Muise, respect for patients meant everything.
“In school, they teach you the medicine, all of that stuff,” Deveau says. “Terry taught people the respect. Terry taught people about what patients deserve.”
It was also because of
Muise that many people became paramedics.
Leah deMolitor was 18 years old when she was involved in an accident. Muise was one of the paramedics that arrived on the scene to care for her.
“He’s the reason that I became a paramedic,” she says. “He’s a caring guy. A huge patient advocate. It was always about the patient. Never about anything else. He’s the reason I’ve been doing this for 18 years.”
That same inspiration is true for paramedic Michelle Travis.
“I first met Terry as a ridealong in 1999. What I remember most about that time was his passion for the job. He loved being a paramedic and being there to help others in their time of need,” she says, explaining she decided to become a paramedic largely based on the time she spent with Muise all those years ago.
“He always had a smile on his face. He was a wealth of knowledge, a mentor to numerous paramedics,” she says. “Some say he was a legend. To all of his patients, he was a true hero – a well-deserved title. He will be missed by all.”
Crystal Larkin has been a paramedic for 31 years and knew Muise that entire time.
“He was a huge patient advocate. It was always about the patient, never about the prestige of the job,” says Larkin. “Terry has been a mentor to so many people. He’s been the mascot for the Yarmouth base. Any time of the day or night, Terry always popped in for a chat or a coffee and to see how things were going.
It’s just surreal the impact that man has had on all of us.”
FROM PARAMEDIC TO FAMILY MAN; THE RED SOX TO ELVIS
Muise grew up in the south part of town. His family didn’t have a lot of money. He worked hard to get to where he was, starting in the field at a time when paramedics were instead known as ambulance drivers. During his lifetime, he also served as a firefighter and dispatcher with the Yarmouth Fire Department.
As much as Muise loved being a first responder, he also loved being a husband to his wife Sandra and a father to his boys Matt and Luke. Baseball was another passion. Deveau remembers his friend putting thousands of kilometres a week on his vehicle, driving his son Luke to baseball games and practices all over the province.
Muise was also a huge Red Sox fan.
“He told me the other day, ‘The one thing I regret is not being able to make it back to Boston for another game,’” Deveau says. “It was nothing for Terry to say, ‘You know what, I think after work I’ll head to Boston.’ He’d get home, change, pack his bag and be gone.”
A care package from Fenway Park was en route to Muise, although sadly, it didn’t get there in time before his death.
Muise also loved Elvis. Big time. Not just listening to Elvis tunes, but belting them
out himself for his colleagues and friends – whether it was at Ernie’s Grill in Yarmouth or a paramedics’ symposium in the city.
“His first Elvis outfit was a bedazzled dress shirt with a WWF wrestling belt that was too small – they had to use springs to hook it in the back for it to actually stay on,” laughs Deveau. “He’d walk out on that stage and the place was packed with medics, nurses, doctors, police and everybody from south end Yarmouth that could fit in there. All of the old ladies would freak.”
Retired paramedic Doug Bourque greatly admired Terry, although the two didn’t share the same musical inclination.
“I don’t like Elvis. He knew,” Bourque says, smiling. “My thing was Black Sabbath. That’s quite the span in between.”
Muise, he says, was always the type of person you could approach. If you had a question and he didn’t have the answer, he promised he’d find it.
“He was just an all-around good guy,” says Bourque.
THANK YOU
Muise had other skills too, Deveau says. Those were in the wrestling ring where he
was known as Terry the Tornado.
“His body took a lot of abuse in that. He’s always had the aches and pains,” Deveau says.
So, when Muise started having them again more recently, he brushed them off as normal.
But then came an ache and pain that was markedly different. He sought treatment. Within a week, he had the diagnosis of cancer. With just weeks left in his life, he went to work the next day, but it was his last shift.
On Feb. 9, a parade of ambulances, RCMP cruisers and firetrucks drove past his home as a tribute. Asked why this tribute was so important, Deveau says, “We wanted him to see how many lives he’s touched.”
While time ran out minutes sooner than everyone would have hoped, there was solace that Muise’s family was also reminded about his impact in the community.
“There have been a lot of losses in the EHS in the past few weeks, they never got their final log-off and we wanted to give it to Terry,” Deveau says. “The medics needed this as much as he needed this.”
It is tradition when a paramedic retires that they do a final log-off over the TMR radio to announce their last shift has ended.
A log-off for Muise came at 12:30 p.m. on Feb. 9, courtesy of his friend and colleague Sean Murphy. People stood in quiet, and in tears, as this honour took place.
“Attention all units. Attention all units. Attention all units. I have the privilege of logging off for the last time of his 44-year career, Yarmouth advanced care paramedic Terry Muise, registration number 30252,” announced Murphy. “We would like to thank you for your dedication to your community and the people of Nova Scotia. For being a mentor to so many paramedics that you guided through over the years, including myself.”
“Thank you to your wife Sandra and your boys Luke and Matt, in supporting you throughout this prestigious career. Know that your husband and father touched so many lives to make this world a better place,” said Murphy. “And as Elvis would say, thank you for taking care of business.”
From the community, another Elvis-inspired goodbye.
Thank you, Terry. Thank you very much.
And from his fellow paramedics, this farewell: Rest easy Terry, we’ll take it from here.