“They saved my life!”

— “They saved my life,” Jeannine Rainone said of the emergency ambulance personnel with Northeast Benton County Volunteer Fire/EMS Department.

At the Memorial Day breakfast Monday, Rainone said she wants to do everything she possibly can to support the department.

“It’s a great service we don’t ever want to have to use again,” laughed John Rainone, Jeannine’s husband.

Mrs. Rainone said that last St.

Patrick’s Day, her husband was out of town and she was home alone. She said it was very hot, she was not feeling well and couldn’t open the windows.

“I felt terrible and was in terrible pain through the night,” she said, explaining that the pain worsened until she couldn’t walk.She called her neighbors who encouraged her to call 911.

“I didn’t want to,” Rainone said of calling in the emergency, because she kept believing the pain would subside. “They were there within 10 minutes.”

“They could tell I was in agony.

The house was hot. I was dehydrated.”

“They were so professional.

They are the most caring group of individuals. They made me laugh. They gave me painkillers to get me through the trip,” she said.

A resident of Lost Bridge Village, Rainone recently moved here from Dallas, Texas. She and her husband bought the vacation home a couple of years ago, but moved here last fall. She admitted she was familiar with professional ambulance services because of living in Dallas, but she said there is not the level of care that NEBCO personnel showed.

“You just don’t get that level of caring,” she said comparing the “big city” ambulance staff withNEBCO.

At the hospital, it was discovered she had kidney stones and was bleeding internally. And, the couple’s insurance did not cover the ambulance ride.

“My husband and I are so supportive of the quality of care from these individuals, we didn’t care.

We were willing to sell stuff to pay. It’s worth the price,” she said.

“We come to everything these guys offer,” Mr. Rainone said. “It’s important to me. They deserve our support.”

NEBCO Fire Chief Rob Taylor beamed with pride as his employees were praised then praised the community for their support.

“This is a great turnout,” Taylor said of the nearly 300 people who attended the breakfast Monday.

“The community supports our functions,” Kara Funk, chairman of the NEBCO Board of Directors, said. “We have a lot of participation from our firefighters.”

Funk said NEBCO netted $1,900 at the recent spaghetti feedfundraiser.

State Senator Cecile Bledsoe, present for the breakfast, praised NEBCO and the community for their efforts to raise their own support.

“They work so hard at raising money, that I’m always glad to try to get them anything I can,” Bledsoe said.

Most recently, NEBCO purchased a 2004 Excellence ambulance from govdeals.com. The four-wheel drive vehicle was most recently owned by Rogers.

It cost them $20,000 and Taylor said he hopes it will be licensed and in use in June.

News, Pages 1 on 05/30/2012