MALVERN, Iowa (KMTV) — Zennith Wilber, 72, and Linda Seipold, 81, are the backbone of the volunteer rescue squad in Malvern — especially during the day when many neighbors are working in the city and it's mostly just the two of them responding to calls.
- "Right now we are 40 calls above and beyond what we were a year ago,” Wilber said. “And a lot of this has to do with the fact that there is not a hospital in our county."
- "By the time you go to the patient's location, transport them to hospital, come back, clean the rig, do the paperwork, you're looking at two and half hours," Seipold said.
- The two grandmothers, with 80 years of combined experience, say they could use more volunteers to keep the department going.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Imagine calling for an ambulance, but no one is there to answer the call. I'm your southwest Iowa neighborhood reporter, Katrina Markel in Malvern and I'm here because two grandmothers are determined to make sure that doesn't happen in this community.
Zennith Wilber: "She's 81 and I'm 72, how's that?"
During the day in Malvern, if an ambulance is called, most likely Zennith Wilber and Linda Seipold will be the EMTs who respond. Between the two of them – 80 years of experience on volunteer rescue squads.
"By the time you go to the patient's location, transport them to hospital, come back, clean the rig, do the paperwork, you're looking at two and half hours," Seipold said.
She became a volunteer EMT with Malvern in 1981, when there were far more people on the roster and more neighbors who worked in town and could respond during the day. She and Wilber say the vocation has grown since the '80s.
"When I started you were basically a scoop and go, like she said," Wilber said.
With younger neighbors working in Omaha and Council Bluffs, the day shift is almost always staffed by Wilber, who is also paid as a part-time administrator, and Seipold, the farm girl whom Wilber praises as an excellent ambulance driver.
It's a big job.
"Right now we are 40 calls above and beyond what we were a year ago,” Wilber said. “And a lot of this has to do with the fact that there is not a hospital in our county."
A 45-minute drive to Council Bluffs means folks are more likely to call an ambulance. Wilber and Seipold told me they'll call a volunteer firefighter to help with lifting, or they'll pick up a Glenwood paramedic on route to the hospital, but...
"We need volunteers!"
Iowa municipalities aren't required to fund ambulance services as they are with fire services. Mills County is considering solutions, such as a county-wide EMS program, but that involves several steps and would take a few years to implement.
