Behind Martin’s Op-Ed and losing ALS
In addition to these concerns over SBVAC’s culture and recruitment practices, the organization experienced a significant operational setback in the summer of 2023 when it temporarily lost its ALS certification.
“There was an unannounced, routine inspection from the New York State Department of Health Bureau of Emergency Medical Services … and, as a result, a handful of administrative deficiencies were identified. As such, an immediate corrective action plan was put into effect and corrected the concerns promptly,” Lawrence Zacarese, the vice president for Enterprise Risk Management and chief security officer at Stony Brook, said in a statement to The Statesman.
According to Ahmed Belazi, SBVAC’s advisor and Executive Director of Strategic Analytics and Technologies at Stony Brook, this did not impact SBVAC’s service to the campus community.
“A handful of administrative deficiencies were identified. As such, an immediate corrective action plan was put into effect and corrected the concerns promptly. There was no impact to campus and EMS service,” Belazi said.
At the time, there was no communication to the campus community about the loss of the ALS certification. When an ambulance service loses its ALS certification, they have to return their narcotics to the Department of Health (DOH) and remove any ALS equipment from their ambulances. They are not authorized to administer certain medications and are limited to providing BLS services such as CPR and transporting patients.
According to Reilly, Stony Brook University Hospital formed a mutual aid agreement last year with SBVAC in order to help dispatch an ALS ambulance to all higher-priority calls they receive.
When The Statesman asked if SBVAC was still under any ongoing investigations during the September 2023 interview, Reilly said that there were no ongoing investigations into the organization.
However, the DOH told The Statesman that SBVAC was still under an ongoing investigation in September 2023. When revealing this, Reilly then said, “There may be investigations regarding particular providers but I couldn’t comment on that.”
SBVAC was also under a Title IX investigation on Feb. 2, 2023 after Martin filed a complaint. The claim alleged discriminatory conduct against her by SBVAC, Ishika Patel and Captain Joseph Cline. The allegations were found to be unsubstantiated by the University’s Title IX investigator.
Reilly refused to comment on the investigation.
Martin, who has consistently applied to SBVAC for multiple semesters, explained that her ongoing applications stem from her love for the University. However, she has also had personal experiences that have made her discontent with the organization’s practices.
In particular, she recalls feeling “disgust” at what she perceived as negligence on SBVAC’s behalf when she had to perform CPR on her own family member who experienced cardiac arrest on campus.
“One of my family members went into cardiac arrest on campus. I started CPR immediately. The cops showed up, SBVAC showed up with a male EMT, a female driver and fire marshal Tyler Danowski and I was doing CPR in the back [of the ambulance],” she said. “The male … was [using a bag valve mask to manually ventilate] my family member and I had to tell him at one point, ‘call the hospital, call Stony Brook,’ and so I took over and he called Stony Brook.”
Following the incident, Martin claims that she has faced slander from SBVAC members after they discovered her identity as the author of the op-ed. She alleges that one member spread false rumors about her, damaging her reputation within the organization.
Brian Anderson, a paramedic for Suffolk County who worked with Martin, defended her qualifications.
“I had a very complicated job with her a couple years ago where it was a life or death situation with a young female child and she came on, and she came on kind of like a second set of hands for me to help me out and we had a very positive result where the child survived this nearly catastrophic brain traumatic injury,” he said. “She’s a very good medic.”
Earlier this fall semester, Martin applied to rejoin SBVAC.
“During the interview, the other emergency management person asked me if I … waved or said ‘hi’ to an SBVAC member on campus,” she wrote in an email to The Statesman. “I was asked questions that others were definitely not asked.”
Martin also expressed how unsafe she feels on campus because of SBVAC’s treatment of her.
“I feel very unsafe on campus and try to avoid it at all costs,” she wrote to The Statesman. “I don’t know what makes them think that healthcare professionals should be this aggressive.”
The Statesman reached out to Teresa Melfi, the current president of SBVAC for the 2024-25 academic year, but she refused to comment.
