By Samantha Swindler / Managing Editor

Friends and co-workers of Chris Hall said the long-time paramedic, who died Saturday following a car accident, had lovingly earned his nickname, “Shrek.”

He was a “big teddy bear” and a “gentle giant,” who worked as a paramedic for Clay County and Garrard counties, and previously for Whitley and Laurel counties.

“He’s a larger-than-life personality. You just had to know Shrek,” said Whitley County Emergency Medical Services Director Kelly Harrison. “He was just kind-hearted to everyone that he met, and you don’t meet people like that very often.”

Hall, 34, was on his way home after a 24-hour shift at Garrard County EMS Saturday morning when he left the roadway about five miles from the station and struck a tree.

Harrison said Hall worked for Whitley County about a year ago, when he took a job closer to his home in Mount Vernon.

“He was great to the patients that he had, I never had any complaints on him,” Harrison said. “(He was) always a joy to be around. We called him a big teddy bear ... He’s truly missed already and will be missed more.”

Stephanie Spradlin, who worked with Hall in Laurel and Whitley counties, described him as “a gentle giant.

“I’ve cried all morning,” she said. “He’s just one of those people, you know, always a smile on his face, in a good mood, always there to cheer you up. I’ve got children and my kids adored him. He was just a good person, cared about everybody.”

Ambulance Inc. of Laurel County Chief Jimmy Bridges said Hall worked for his department full-time for four years, leaving about a year and a half ago to take a job closer to home.

“He was a good employee,” Bridges said. “He was the life of the party, I guess you could say. He could brighten up your day.

Bridges said with a laugh that Hall was as good natured as Shrek and “he looked just like ‘em.”

Colleagues aren’t sure what happened to cause the wreck, but Harrison said some fellow EMS workers believe he may have fallen asleep at the wheel.

Hall had just gotten off a 24-hour shift, something Harrison said a lot of EMTs and paramedics do “just so they can make ends meet.”

She said average pay for an EMT is about $8.50 per hour, with an average paramedic earning about $10.15 per hour.

More than a decade ago, Bridges said an employee had left a shift in Laurel County and was also killed in a car accident on the way home.

“It affects everyone,” Bridges said of the tragedy, “especially with the long hours that we work, everybody goes home after those 24-hour shifts ... We are out there to help people, and when one of us is affected, it seems like it has a lot harder impact than even the children that we deal with.”

And being on-call in a facility where everyone eats, sleeps and works together makes EMS workers particularly close.

“When you work EMS, it’s like a family,” Spradlin said. “We live together pretty much when we work, we work so many hours together, and the other EMS services know what that’s like, and we support each other. It is like one big giant family.”

Members of that family will be in Mount Vernon Thursday to provide full fireman’s honors for Hall’s funeral.

Services will begin at 11 a.m. Thursday at Rockcastle County High School. Visitation will be from 6-9 p.m. Wednesday at the school.

Dowell & Martin Funeral Home in Mount Vernon is in charge of arrangements.

A full honors procession of fire and EMS vehicles will accompany the funeral procession to Cresthaven Memorial Cemetery for burial.

Hall was a member of the National Registry of EMT-Paramedics, a member of the Bluegrass Sportsman Club, and was also a U.S. Navy veteran.

He is survived by his wife, Virginia Lovell Hall; two daughters, Holly Brooke Cromer and Emily Madison Hall, both of Mt. Vernon; his parents, James Wallace and Nadine Lillian Hall of Lexington; his maternal grandmother, Hazel Baur of Covington; and one sister, Cassandra Leigh Bradley of Lexington.

Donations are suggested to the Garrard Co. Ambulance Service at 319 Stanford St. Lancaster, KY 40444 or to the Clay Co. Ambulance Service at 115 Court St. Manchester, KY 40962.