published: Friday, November 13, 2009

EMS captain laid to rest

LEESBURG — It was only fitting that Capt. David Michael DeLand was carried to his grave Thursday in an ambulance — an ambulance followed by a long funeral procession of other ambulances and fire trucks from across the region.

DeLand was a longtime paramedic and emergency medical technician and was district chief with Lake-Sumter Emergency Medical Services when he suffered a heart attack on the job Nov. 6.

During services at St. Paul’s Catholic Church on Thursday, friends, family and acquaintances talked about his commitment to the EMS.

“He was a special man who touched many lives,” said Bruce Hamilton, chaplain for Lake-Sumter EMS, standing in the church as he watched the Clermont Fire Department honor guard drape an American flag around the casket.

Eulogies and discussions touched on the service provided by DeLand and other first responders as lit candles and colorful stained glass windows filled in the background.

“First responders are truly a special set of people, are truly giving of their lives, knowing that danger lurks around every corner,” said the Rev. Anthony Palmese, former chaplain with the Lake County Sheriff’s Office. He now works with the first responders in Marion County.

DeLand is survived by his wife of 22 years, Toni; son, David DeLand Jr. and daughter, Robin Price.

Price and her brother, the latter in an EMS uniform, represented the family during the eulogies.

“Everything he did, he did with his whole heart,” Price said.

She also discussed how her father would help them with anything, from homework to working on car brakes.

“We knew he could do it all,” she said.

DeLand worked for Lake-Sumter EMS since its inception on Oct. 1, 2000, and had worked as a paramedic and emergency medical technician before that.

Lake-Sumter EMS Executive Director Jim Judge said in an earlier interview that DeLand had completed a number of vehicle accident calls Nov. 5 and was at his Eustis office in the early morning hours of Nov. 6 when a returning group of workers found him in cardiac arrest and administered CPR.

Judge added DeLand hadn’t been feeling well earlier in the day.

The funeral service Thursday was mostly somber but took on a light mood when the Very Rev. John C. Giel talked about how when people read obits they look for the age, to compare it to themselves. He also talked about the 45-year-old DeLand dying at a young age.

“It’s difficult to get hold of what it all means,” Giel said. “It makes us all start to think how fleeting life is.”

The funeral service consisted of prayers, songs, communion, the presentation of gifts and the reading of verses. Perhaps the most striking moment of the funeral was when DeLand’s casket was carried between rows of saluting paramedics and EMS officials — that seemed to be more than a 100 yards long — before it was loaded into the ambulance.

Then the ambulance was escorted to the Tavares Cemetery by a police and sheriff motorcycles.

“He was respected by a lot of people,” said Alan Wilbanks, a district chief for Lake-Sumter EMS, who went to paramedic school with DeLand.