2025 Recipients of the Ontario Medal for Paramedic Bravery
May 28, 2025
May 26, 2025
Health
The Ontario Medal for Paramedic Bravery honours paramedics who have performed an act of exceptional courage. The medal is given to paramedics who have demonstrated great bravery without concern for their personal safety, risking their lives to save others.
Primary Care Paramedic Brittany Bunn – Toronto Paramedic Services
On December 8, 2024, Paramedic Brittany Bunn received a call to attend to a patient in crisis who was hearing voices telling her to harm herself. While Paramedic Bunn was assisting the patient towards a stretcher, the patient grabbed a bladed weapon and put it to her own throat with the intent to harm herself. Paramedic Bunn was able to wrestle the weapon away with assistance from a fellow paramedic and firefighter, before restraining and sedating the patient for transport without further incident. This intervention prevented any serious injury occurring to both the patient and first responders at the scene.
Tactical Advanced Care Paramedic Stephanie Chung – Toronto Paramedic Services
On November 6, 2024, Paramedic Stephanie Chung responded to a call to assist three construction workers trapped in an excavation pit that had suddenly collapsed. The workers were partially buried under soil, gravel, and pavement in a pit approximately eight metres deep. Paramedic Chung had previously completed Rappel and Rescue training and rappelled into the pit with great risk to her own safety to assess and triage the trapped workers. Her selfless actions aided the firefighters in their successful rescue of the trapped workers.
Advanced Care Paramedic, Operations Superintendent Derek Langlois – Niagara Emergency Medical Services
On May 15, 2023, while at home off-duty, Superintendent Derek Langlois was informed by his wife that their neighbour had been violently stabbed. Without hesitation, Superintendent Langlois rushed to the scene and began administering first aid despite the assailant still being present. Superintendent Langlois worked alone to stabilize his neighbour’s condition until the EMS crew arrived. He then joined the EMS crew and continued to attend to the patient’s life-threatening injuries in the ambulance enroute to the hospital, including a serious wound to the patient’s jugular vein. Superintendent Langlois’ personal bravery and professional care was instrumental in saving the life of his neighbour.
Primary Care Paramedic Kayleigh Niccols and Advanced Care Paramedic Dylan Radford – County of Simcoe Paramedic Services
On May 11, 2024, Paramedic Kayleigh Niccols and Paramedic Dylan Radford responded to a call of a two-vehicle motor collision. When they arrived, both vehicles were engulfed in flames and a bystander told them there was a child in the rear seat of one of the vehicles. At risk to their own safety, Paramedics Niccols and Radford attempted to extinguish the flames with a fire extinguisher and broke the windows of the vehicle to check for a passenger in the backseat. Thankfully, there was no passenger in the rear of the vehicle.
Primary Care Paramedic Chantal Olson – Superior North EMS Thunder Bay
On January 10, 2023, Paramedic Chantal Olson was driving home while off-duty when she came across a head-on collision between two trucks. Both drivers were trapped in their vehicles and Paramedic Olson was the first person to arrive on the scene. Paramedic Olson attempted to remove the first driver from his vehicle as it caught on fire. An off-duty Thunder Bay police officer then arrived on the scene and pulled Paramedic Olson away from the vehicle as it began to explode. She then attended to the other driver and provided care for the patient on the 45-minute ride to the nearest hospital.
Superintendent Michael White – Lanark County Paramedic Service
In the early hours of January 1, 2025, Superintendent Michael White heard of a single-vehicle accident on the radio and quickly realized he was closer to the scene than the responding ambulance crew. Upon arrival, he found the vehicle engulfed in flames and a bystander said the driver was trapped inside. Superintendent White found the driver’s door would not open due to damage from the crash. At great risk to his personal safety, he climbed through the rear door to retrieve the unconscious occupant and performed CPR. Although the driver was unable to be revived, Superintendent White demonstrated bravery by putting himself in harm’s way in an attempt to rescue the occupant of the vehicle.
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