Proclamation 5531 --
Emergency Medical Services Week, 1986
By
the President of the
A
Proclamation
Today
in almost every American community, the blue and orange emergency medical
vehicle and the 911 emergency telephone number are instantly recognized
reminders that we are now saving lives in ways unheard of by earlier
generations. They remind us of those dedicated emergency medical teams --
physicians, nurses, emergency medical technicians, paramedics, educators,
administrators, and volunteers -- who have cut in half the death rate for
medical emergencies from accident or disease over the past two decades.
Each
year, some 800,000 Americans lose their lives in such emergencies. But each
year, advances in emergency medical care increase the number of lives saved.
Almost all of us can recall incidents in which a stricken child or neighbor, or
the victim of a highway accident, was saved by quick, efficient, emergency
medicine.
Across
the Nation, emergency medical services teams are working to cut the death rate
from medical emergencies still further. They are working to advance and adapt
their skills and training as new methods of emergency treatment are developed.
And they are working to educate every American on what each of us can do to
cooperate with and to improve the emergency medical services in our own
communities. It is also appropriate that we as a Nation should recognize the
value and importance of emergency medical services teams. We owe them a great
debt of gratitude.
The
Congress, by Public Law 99 - 392, has designated the week beginning September
21, 1986, as ``Emergency Medical Services Week'' and authorized and requested
the President to issue a proclamation in observance of this event.
Now,
Therefore, I, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of America, do
hereby proclaim the week beginning September 21, 1986, as Emergency Medical
Services Week, and I call upon all Americans to participate in ceremonies and
activities to express our appreciation to emergency medical services teams and
to help educate the public about accident prevention in general and what to do
in step-by-step fashion when confronted with a medical emergency wherever and
whenever it may occur.
In
Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-second day of
September, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-six, and of the
Ronald
Reagan
[Filed
with the Office of the Federal Register,
Note:
The proclamation was released by the Office of the Press Secretary on September
23.