Surprise Fire Department Paramedic of the Year battling stage 4 cancer [Video]

PHOENIX (AZFamily) — The Surprise Fire-Medical Department recognized its top emergency responders Thursday at an awards ceremony and it gave the honor of “Paramedic of the Year” to Paul Johnson.

Surprise Fire says the majority of Johnson’s fellow paramedics are firefighters. He’s one of the few civilians and he’s been with the department since 2018.

Johnson is known as the go-to guy who has a positive attitude and a calling to serve.

“Surprised. There’s a lot of great competition. I work with some fantastic, fantastic paramedics,” he said.

Battalion Chief Larry Subervi has a different take.

“If you went statistically with 100 paramedics and only 1 wins it a year, you have a 1% chance of winning it, right. So, that would be if everybody was equal. Paul is just not equal to everybody else. He’s on a different level as a medic,” said Subervi.

The timing of this award makes it all the more meaningful to Johnson and his …