NEWBURGH — From car crashes to fires, first responders are prepared to respond to the unexpected. But local EMTs Jessica Foster and Christopher Mancuso never expected to load a swaddled eagle onto a stretcher.
The pair, who work for Wallkill Volunteer Ambulance Corps in Ulster County, were coming back from Montefiore St. Luke’s Cornwall Hospital on Monday morning when they came across an injured bald eagle on Route 300 in the town of Newburgh.
With the help of the town police department, Foster and Mancuso swaddled the raptor, who appeared to have been hit by a car, and loaded it into the back of the ambulance on a stretcher to be taken to a nearby veterinary hospital.
“While an injured bald eagle is certainly outside the scope of a typical EMS response, the initiative, resourcefulness and cooperation demonstrated by this crew reflect the qualities that make our EMS providers such valuable members of the communities they serve,” Ulster County EMS Council President Jeff Ashdown said in a statement…