N. Merrick paramedic one of state’s best

Kevin O’Hara has been saving lives for four decades. A volunteer paramedic and firefighter with the North Merrick Fire Department, O’Hara is also a purveyor of life-saving knowledge to others — he has trained thousands of EMTs throughout his career, and thousands more Nassau County residents have learned cardiopulmonary resuscitation and automated external defibrillator use from O’Hara. His lifelong commitment to emergency care garnered him this year’s Harriet C. Weber EMS Leadership Award from the state Department of Health, which he is due to receive officially at a state EMS conference in October in Rochester. He will also receive an award from the Nassau County Regional Emergency Medical Services Council.

O’Hara is known to many locally through his work with Forever 9: The Robbie Levine Foundation, a nonprofit organization that donates AEDs to youth ball fields and offers and funds CPR/AED training. Merokeans Jill and Craig Levine founded the Foundation after their son, Robbie, died of sudden cardiac arrest at age 9 during a 2005 Little League practice. A state-certified EMS instructor, O’Hara became the Foundation’s lead CPR/AED instructor in 2006, and since then he has trained more than 2,500 sports coaches and other residents in these life-saving techniques. There are four documented cases of these individuals using CPR or an AED to save a life, according to the North Merrick Fire Department. O’Hara has also trained many area teachers to be CPR/AED instructors, who are now teaching the techniques to students through their schools’ health and physical educations programs.

He has long taken a leadership role in the North Merrick Fire Department, including serving on its Board of Commissioners, an elected position. O’Hara serves on the Nassau REMAC and the American Medical Association’s National Disaster Life Support Foundation.

“Through Kevin’s dedication, innovation and commitment, a family’s goals were taken from a concept to becoming a reality,” a North Merrick Fire Department news release stated. “… His lifelong commitment to the fire and EMS community has exemplified his longevity, executive leadership and management skills. As a provider, leader and educator he has a very positive impact toward our county and communities pre-hospital providers.”