Lillian Bonsignore: This is the cool part.
This is the cool part of the job.
Lots of lives are gonna be saved
by these people, lots of lives.
Narrator: This is Lillian Bonsignore,
The Fire Department of New York's
very first female and openly gay EMS chief
in the organization's 154-year history.
Bonsignore: I talk about my wife openly.
So it's OK that we have this conversation.
I'm comfortable with it.
I think there are lots of folks
that need examples and role models,
that need to know that,
whatever box somebody is willing to put you in,
doesn't mean you have to live there.
Narrator: Lillian started out
as an emergency medical technician
on an ambulance in the Bronx 28 years ago,
and, since, she's worked her way up
to the highest-ranking position.
She now runs the largest
emergency-medical-system force
in the entire United States.
Her team's a part of the fire department,
but these folks are paramedics and EMTs.
They work on ambulances,
respond to 911 calls,
and provide on-the-scene medical care.
Bonsignore: That means there are 4,000-plus
EMTs and paramedics that staff our ambulances,
that service our five boroughs,
and my job is to oversee that
and make sure that we are providing
the highest level of medical care
to those people who need us the most.
Man: Everybody clear?
Clear, Joey?
Everybody clear?
Continue CPR.
Narrator: Born and raised in the Bronx,
Lillian says she had a tough childhood
and credits her success to a few key women in her life.
Bonsignore: Along my way, very strong women
just magically found themselves in my path,
and they decided to take an interest
in a kid that needed help and, you know,
maybe was a little broken growing up
in a tough neighborhood with difficult circumstances.
Narrator: It was actually Lillian's pediatrician
who suggested she become an EMT.
Bonsignore: I didn't know what an EMT was,
but I trusted her with everything that I had,
and I took this job for the summer,
and it's been 28 years,
and it's the longest summer job I've ever had.
Narrator: She moved up the ranks
in the Bronx and Brooklyn
to lieutenant, captain, and station commander.
Along the way,
she became an instructor at the EMS Academy
and endured the grueling paramedic's training.
She was also among the first responders
during the terrorist attacks on 9/11.
When Lillian was 30 and serving on the force,
she came out as gay.
She's now married and has two daughters.
Bonsignore: There have been a couple of men who
maybe believed that a woman's place
is not in the fire department,
and, you know, they don't really appreciate
maybe an alternative home situation,
but that is their issue to come around to,
that's not really my concern,
but I will save their lives as quickly
as I would save the life
of the woman that I've loved
for 18 years.
Narrator: After 28 years of service,
in May 2019, Lillian was promoted
to the fire department's chief of EMS,
serving the entirety of New York City.
Bonsignore: Today, I can stand here
and accept a promotion
to the highest position in FDNY EMS,
even though I'm a woman.
Today, I can stand here next to the woman that I love,
and enjoy the spirit of this special day,
when there are more places in this country
that you could be fired for being a member
of the LGBTQ community.
Those females that are out there and
didn't have a role model,
and didn't have somebody to say that,
yes, this is a possibility for you,
now they do,
and I take that responsibility
on wholeheartedly.
Narrator: But Lillian isn't
entering the role at the easiest of times.
Call volume is up, having risen 4.6%
from 2017 to 2018.
EMS responded to a record-breaking
1.5 million 911 calls last year.
EMTs are making the move to higher-paid positions,
like firefighting, at a staggering rate,
and response times across EMS in New York City
have risen to life-threatening heights.
Bonsignore: This is a very tough job.
That is something that
people don't really recognize.
Sometimes they think of EMS
as being ambulance drivers,
but the reality is,
the things that EMS people see in their jobs,
let's say over the course of a month,
may be things that people will never see
in the course of their lifetime.
Narrator: Lillian says her EMTs and paramedics
are also facing a growing array of daily issues:
long hours, assault from patients,
patients with infectious diseases,
and, sometimes, dangerous service locations.
She's on a mission to make the public
aware of these realities
and honor those who take on the sacrifice.
Bonsignore: These people come every single day
with a smile on their face,
knowing that these challenges exist,
and they work to push past these things
just because they know it's right.
Narrator: As for Lillian, she loves the job,
and plans to use her new position
to lift up young folks in her community
struggling like she once was.
Bonsignore: We have a very high suicide rate
in the young LGBTQ community,
and they need us.
They need somebody to invest in them
like these women invested in me.
It was truly life-changing,
and if you think a few minutes doesn't matter
in somebody else's life,
I can tell you that you're wrong.
If you think that,
if you invest heavily
in somebody who's struggling,
that they won't appreciate it
or it won't guide them to success,
I can tell you that you're wrong
because the only reason that I'm here today
is because that happened.