Ellen E. Scharmach

MISHAWAKA — Ellen E. Scharmach, who helped get local Emergency Medical Service departments off the ground, died Wednesday in Memorial Hospital, after an illness.

Scharmach, 52, of Weber Drive, was the instructor for the area's rust paramedic training program. begun in the fall of 1974. Initially it began with technicians with the South Bend Fire Department and McGann's Ambulance Co. and later included the Mishawaka EMS Department and others. "She is the godmother of EMS in Michiana," said Mishawaka EMS Director Michael Hargreaves. He noted that she worked closely with the late Dr. Philip Myers of Memorial Hospital in setting up the paramedic training program. Among early graduates were Lewis McGann, owner of the McGann firm, and Richard Switalski, director of the South Bend EMS Department. "She's probably literally touched thousands of people," said Lawrence Dygulski, a former South Bend paramedic who now supervises the clinical-care transport pro-gram at St. Joseph's Regional Medical Center. The number of paramedics and EMTs she trained over the years easily runs into the hundreds. Dygulski said . "She was such a great teacher," he added. "She could teach to different levels and relate to everyone."

Scharmach came to Memorial in the early 1970s as a float nurse in the intensive-care unit and emergency want. She then joined with Myers in helping start the paramedic program. "The bottom line is that she and Dr. Myers had the most impact in the whole area for EMS," Hargreaves said. "They planted the seed and the tree grew" Scharmach trained about 90 percent of the original Mishawaka technicians when that program was set up in the mid-1970s, he continued. "She was a super lady She just did it all," Hargreaves added. "It's hard to think of anyone more responsible for lives being saved," McGann said in a tribute planned for her before her unexpected death. "She is truly a medical wonder" Scharmach was a recent recipient of the Eugene R. Glod Education and Professional EMS Award, and last year received the William T Schmidt Memorial Award for Public Safety Education. She marked 25 years of teaching of both paramedic classes and classes for the American Heart Association. She held a key statewide paramedic training role, serving on the Indiana EMS Commission's test construction and education committees.

Scharmach was born in 1946 in South Bend and was a 1964 graduate of Central High School and a 1967 graduate of the Memorial Hospital School of Nursing. She then served in the Army as a nurse at Fort Campbell, Ky., and in Vietnam. She later worked part time at the McGann firm and for many years as Memorial's EMS coordinating nurse. More recently, she worked as an industrial nurse at the I/N Tek, I/N Kote plants near New Carlisle. running the factories' first responder program. She taught many courses and was an affiliate instructor at Indiana University South Bend, Ivy Tech College in South Bend and at St. Joseph Community Hospital in Mishawaka. She also was the primary hospital liaison for the North Penn Fire Department's advanced EMT and defibrillator departments. Branching out later, she taught classes on hazardous materials for emergency workers and also taught students at Memorial's nursing school.

There are no local survivors.

Friends will gather at 7 p.m. today at the Blue Heron Center at Blackthorn Corporate Park in South Bend to celebrate her life. 

Source: Newspapers.com

10/22/2023 EJS (passed her EMT class c-1985. Great teacher and person)