Lehigh Valley EMS community honors one of its own

LEHIGH COUNTY, Pa. - A Lehigh Valley community remembering the life of one of its first responders. A life lost entirely too soon.

“Today was a pretty sad day for us,” Bryan Evans, Director MedEvac.

The director of Lehigh Valley Health Network’s MedEvac, remembering a colleague, mentor and friend.

Monday, the EMS community lost a legend. From the air, Skyfox, in Allentown, above the procession honoring Don Shambo, a 45-year veteran flight paramedic, including 30 years with MedEvac, where he saved countless lives.

“Unfortunately, after a short battle with illness, he passed away today,” stated Evans.

At the age of 63, he’d just retired in November following a cancer battle, but was still hoping to make a comeback, despite recent weeks in intensive care.

“Don was a mentor to many people, a pioneer really, in the industry. He started as a teenager, working with the fire department on the ambulance,” commented Evans.

Departments across the region expressing their appreciation to a man who’d given so much, including as past president of the Lehigh County Ambulance Association.

Recently honored at a Lehigh Valley Phantoms hockey game recognizing hometown heroes, Don was humble.

“Recognition wasn’t something Don ever asked for,” Evans added.

Another blow in 2020. COVID took the life of an EMT earlier in the year. But, this exhausted, hard-working 75 member team carries on, just as Don Shambo would have wanted.

“It’s gonna be a rough road for a lot of people for a long time, but Don would not want us to sit here and wallow. He would want us to keep going out and continue in the mission, which he did for so long,” Evans said.

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