Why Routine Transfers Warrant Your A-Game

Imagine some Wednesday morning you’re getting ready for work.

You don’t know it yet, but this day will be anything but ordinary. You’re about to transport one of the most famous people in world history. And that’s not all. This person is a world-class master caregiver—someone who will surely read your eyes, scrutinize your uniform and your equipment, assess the tone of your voice and the quality of your touch, appreciate the way you handle your equipment, and comprehend the significance of every nuance in your professional repertoire.

Will you bring your A-game? Yes? No? Maybe so?

Forty-year veteran New York City medic Bob Levy can tell you all about such days. He recalled a Wednesday in 1997, when his boss asked him to handle a courtesy transport for the Catholic Archdiocese of New York. Levy was a medic at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Greenwich Village, which, until its closing in 2010, was New York’s third-busiest facility.

As the flagship medical provider for the Archdiocese, Levy said in a recent interview that St. Vincent’s EMS system often furnished them with various kinds of medical support. On June 4, they called his supervisor requesting a stair chair to carry a dignitary down some stairs at a convent in the South Bronx and take them to Teterboro Airport.

“When we got there,” he says, “I had to pinch myself. There, on a bed in a room without any other furniture, was Mother Teresa. She was suffering from back pain and unable to get out of bed.”

Levy said they moved her down several flights of stairs as she apologized repeatedly for their having to carry her. He said they assured her it was the greatest honor of their lives.

When they arrived at street level, a circle of nuns shielded them from the rush of media people who had arrived. They transferred their guest to a stretcher, moved her to their ambulance, and transported her to the airport under police escort, where they were directed onto a runway.

Levy said he attended and that Mother Teresa conversed with him throughout the trip. He said she blessed five medals for him and his direct family members and signed a prayer card for him.

“To this day,” he said, “the experience is as cherished to me as the birth of my children.”