Laurine Dennis became a paramedic in 2004, and has been with St. Francois County Ambulance District for the past 9 years. Her most recent accomplishment in her career has been becoming a Supervisor for the district. She is also a valued member of the districts paramedical tactical team. During the course of her career as a paramedic, she has demonstrated the depth of compassion she can have for each individual while continuing to provide outstanding patient care. Laurine had one particular event in which she was able to not only provide care for a patient that night but for months to come. She was dispatched to a 20 year old unresponsive patient who had overdosed, as she responded to the call she reflected on what care to provide as well as how frequent these types of calls were becoming. The call went by the book and once the patient was loaded in route to the emergency room, she decided to have a heart-to-heart with the gentleman. She informed him of how they found him and had there been no one around, death may have been the outcome. Also that his little brother had been there to witness the entire scene, she continued to tell him that his family loved him very much. That he needed to love himself in order to become clean. Two months later, he showed up at the ambulance shed to not only personally thank Laurine for saving his life but for giving him the motivation and clarity he needed to get his life back. He is planning on becoming a paramedic in the near future. This young man also changed her life as well, his situation has reminded her that you never know what the cause is for a patient’s actions and furthermore may never know how your actions will impact a person’s life forever. Laurine is supported by her husband, John and their 2 children.”