Peter Lazzara is a decorated Chicago Fire Department Paramedic and a long-time neighbor of the Stantons in Edgebrook. He was the first emergency responder on the morning of December 12, 2009, and the Stanton family will be forever grateful for his valiant and unrelenting efforts to assist Danny that day, and many days prior.
A Chicago native, Pete graduated from Northeastern Illinois University in 1979 with a degree in education, and began teaching and coaching at Gordon Technical High School, then the largest all-boys Catholic High School in the country. While teaching, Pete completed Loyola University Medical Center’s Paramedic program and the following fall, accepted a position with Paramedic Services of Illinois as a Firefighter/Paramedic and began serving in that role for several area Fire Departments. In 1990, Pete accepted a position with the Chicago Fire Department as a Fire Paramedic, rising to his current rank of Ambulance Commander.
While working for the Chicago Fire Department, Pete has been awarded several department commendations and in 1997 was awarded the West Suburban Hospital’s “Paramedic of the Year” award. Pete has also worked at the Loyola University Medical Center as an EMS instructor and received further training to serve as a Flight Medic with their air medical helicopter program “LifeStar.” Pete was hired in 1997 to be the first Emergency Medical Services Coordinator at Children’s Memorial Hospital where he received the Illinois Department of Public Health’s Ron W. Lee, MD Memorial Award for “Excellence in Pediatric Care”, as well as the Illinois Department of Child and Family Service’s “Program Excellence Award.”
In his current assignment for the Chicago Fire Department, Pete has worked with city officials to develop the Midwest’s first state-of-the-art Fire/EMS training simulation laboratory to enhance emergency response skills of current and new paramedics. In addition, Pete is the founder and President of EMSed, an educational company specializing in Emergency Medical Services educational concepts. He is a nationally recognized EMS speaker and annually presents at EMS conferences nationwide.
Pete has been married to his wife Betty for 29 years and has two children, Katie (22) and Patrick (19). Amidst all of his activity and accomplishments, Pete found the time to be a tremendous friend to Danny, and he does the same with Danny’s siblings Mary Grace, Johnny and Tommy. Pete found great joy in spending time with Danny, playing baseball, kickball and simply hanging out with him on his swing set any day of the week. The feeling was mutual. Danny enjoyed helping Pete wash his car and plant flowers in his garden. As Pete says, “Everything was right with the world when you were hanging with Danny.”
Pete can be reached at plazzara@dannydid.org.
