RIP Johnny Gage

I was a teenager when Emergency! first hit the air, and I never missed an episode. My enthusiasm went far beyond having a crush on Johnny Gage AKA Randolph Mantooth. Following the paramedics of LA Fire Station 51 for the next few years sparked a career choice that had a far-reaching impact on my life. 

It started with taking a CPR class. Not long after I graduated from high school, I signed up for emergency medical training and eventually became an EMT on my local ambulance service. 

Fast forward a few decades. I had retired from that first career and moved on through several others, but I still carried a passion for the adrenaline rush of lights and sirens. I channeled that passion into my writing and created a character named Zoe Chambers, a paramedic on a small-town ambulance service. 

Thirteen Zoe Chambers novels later (and a total of 19 novels), here I am, in a place where I doubt I would be had it not been for Emergency! and Randy Mantooth.  

I always hoped to someday meet him and thank him. That won't happen now. But I'm not alone in having gone into EMS because of him, and I know he was well aware of the impact his show had on the lives of those paramedics, not to mention the lives of those they saved.

So, RIP, Johnny Gage. Your memory and your legacy live on.

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