WEST CHESTER, Ohio — Star is happiest laying on the grass with a ball in her mouth at the feet of her owner Louie Belluomini, but when her vest comes on Star is a different dog.
The pair are Ohio’s only and the nation’s first K9 EMS team working with Ohio Ambulance to assist paramedics.
Now after five years riding together on ambulance rigs, the team has their own vehicle putting their strengths and needs at the center.
Before he met Star, Belluomini never would have described himself as a dog person.
“I really didn’t want one,” he said.
Belluomini made a career for himself as a flight medic, assisting with trauma and rescue missions across Ohio and even traveling to New Orleans to assist after Hurricane Katrina.
He later joined the Army as a military police officer.
He served tours in Iraq and Afghanistan before he was honorably discharged as a captain in 2015, though Belloumini said things didn’t feel right when he came home.
He suffered a traumatic brain injury and was diagnosed with PTSD shortly after his return. Meanwhile, a hip injury he sustained overseas made it difficult for him to handle the demands of his previous paramedic job.
Belluomini said he spent a year looking for ways to cope before he reached out to K9s for Warriors.
“It was just part of a last-ditch effort,” he said. “Cause I had tried everything, medication, counseling, different therapies, but it seemed to be like nothing was working.”
The organization matched him with Star in 2016 and at first, Belluomini thought she’d never work out.
Belluomini puts Star in working vest
“I would keep trying to tell her lay down, she’d roll over, want her belly touched and rubbed and just be messing around,” he said. “It was really like, ‘Oh man, I have to have this dog for the rest of my life? ’”
Then as soon as Belluomini needed her to work, she did.
Star was there to watch over him, make sure people gave him space and on occasion would help him stand up.
Once she got used to that, Belluomini brought her to work.
“She kind of went right into it,” he said. “It was pretty simple.”
Not only was Star able to keep Belluomini calm and focused on the ambulance, but she could help the rest of the paramedic team as well.
“The patients love her. The employees love her and it just brings a sense of calmness to this type of environment,” Belluomini said.
Star demonstrates how she ensures Belluomini can keep his distance.
As the first working dog on an ambulance rig in the United States, Star was trained to track for potential search and rescue missions.
Belluomini then trained her nose to help provide a quick diagnosis. In April 2020, she was trained to detect coronavirus and assisted at nursing homes.
“We’re even trying to expand on what we can use her for because this is all so new,” Belluomini said.
By 2021, the team logged enough calls to earn their own dedicated transport with safety and temperature controls to keep Star safe on missions, while also opening up opportunities for them to use their unique strengths.
Even the vehicle’s external design was made with the team in mind.
When Ohio Ambulance went to Advertising Vehicles to get it wrapped, the company donated an upgraded design with a silhouette of Star surrounded by Stars and Stripes to reflect Belluomini’s story.
“Pictures don’t do it justice,” he said.
Before Star came into his life, Belluomini said he wasn’t sure how much longer he could continue helping others, now the vehicle and its team will travel from Cincinnati to Cleveland assisting Ohio Ambulance paramedics across the state in whatever way they can.
“I might have gone into a different role because it’s just too hard on me but mentally physically since she’s here she’s able to help me get through that a lot easier,” he said.
Belluomini and Star are still a one of a kind team, but Belluomini hopes soon, there will be K9 EMS crews across the country.
“I would like to see every ambulance have a dog,” he said.
