Leechburg paramedic for Allegheny Health Network featured in Marvel comic book

If you ask Gary Cockroft, he’s about as far from a superhero as you could get.

“I’m really quiet. I don’t like the camera; I like to stay in the background,” said Cockroft, 64, a Leechburg resident and paramedic with A-K Pulser.

Marvel Comics and the Allegheny Health Network, however, see things differently, and have partnered for a second issue in the “Vitals” comic book series: “The Vitals: True EMS Stories.”

Last year’s “Vitals,” which debuted in December, told true stories of nurses in the region. This year’s issue, set this past winter, brings true EMS stories to life. The comic debuted Monday, and one of its vignettes features Cockroft, who has worked in emergency medicine for four decades.

“I haven’t even wrapped my head around it yet,” he said.

Cockroft and fellow EMS providers are “truly the unsung heroes of the covid-19 pandemic,” said Robert Twaddle, AHN’s vice president for pre-hospital care services.

“With demand for their services at unprecedented heights, and facing exposure to a highly contagious and dangerous virus, they never faltered in delivering outstanding face-to-face care in patients’ homes and in community settings and accident scenes.”

In 2020, there were 27.5 million 911-initiated EMS calls resulting in direct patient contact, a number that increased by more than 10 million since 2018, according to the National Association of State EMS Officials.

“Just like in Marvel comic books, we see each of these stories as a chance to experience the heart and drive behind the heroes working tirelessly to save lives,” said Marvel Entertainment President Dan Buckley. “After the incredible reaction we saw from our first comic book with AHN and Doner, we knew these stories were truly special. We are honored to help AHN tell more of these stories, which now give us another glimpse into the world of health care heroes saving millions of lives every day.”

Cockroft said not enough people know the time and dedication EMS workers put in.

“Unless you’re associated with an ambulance or fire department, I don’t think the normal person has any idea what we do, what’s involved, or how much time is involved,” he said. “For me, working in my hometown on occasion, I see people I was born and raised with being sick or passing away. There’s a heavy emotional component to it, and not a lot of people think about that.”

“The Vitals: True EMS Stories” features vignettes based on eight life-like medical calls. As with the nurses depicted in the first issue of “The Vitals,” EMS providers were nominated by their co-workers for inclusion in this follow up comic book story. They range from Cockroft’s experience calmly talking a psychiatric patient off a ledge where he was threatening to jump, to EMS workers delivering a breech-birth premature baby to front-line health care providers continuing to provide direct patient care despite their own potential risk factors for covid complications, such as asthma.

The comic books will be distributed to EMS personnel, and an e-reader will be available for digital distribution at AHN.org/TheVitalsEMS.

“What I’m hoping is that parents show it to their kids,” Cockroft said. “They can kind of go through the comic book and hopefully both learn a little more about what we do.”