Tribute honoring EMS workers makes a stop in Dallas

DALLAS - Now through next week, emergency medical workers across the country who lost their lives in the line of duty since the onset of the pandemic will be honored with a traveling memorial that started in Lewisville.

A state trooper led the procession of an ambulance carrying a traveling memorial honoring EMS workers who lost their lives in the line of duty nationwide since the pandemic.

"Every day, we sent people out to do something where they could get sick. They could die, and some did," said Randy Strozyk with the American Ambulance Association. 

One hundred forty-four bronze leaves each with a name where they worked and the date of death.

"It allows families that would otherwise not know each other to connect and kind of use each other to help with the healing process," said Jenn Liebman, the memorial artist.

"The National EMS Memorial Service is the congressionally sanctioned organization entrusted to bestow the highest honor in our nation to the EMS workers who have died in the line of duty," explained Jana Williams.

When we think about the term line of duty deaths, we often think about police officers killed in the line of duty, but paramedics are those who bring medical help can themselves also face peril.

Like in 2017 when Dallas Fire-Rescue paramedic William An was shot twice while he was trying to save a shooting victim

Medstar's Trey McDaniel was on his way to work when he was smashed by an 18-wheeler in the massive ice storm crash in Fort Worth. Injured, he still helped others. 

The people behind the traveling memorial working for a permanent memorial in Washington D.C.

Megan Haverkamp is one of the drivers as the memorial makes 29 stops between Dallas and D.C. next week.

"It's a huge honor to be able to represent those families of all the fallen EMS workers," she said.