A rescuer laid to rest

"An EMS legend," is how Charlottesville Albemarle Rescue Squad president David Starmer describes medic Nikki Kielar, who had risen to assistant chief of operations at CARS since she began volunteering in 1996. A UVA grad who earned her master's degree in physiology from VCU Medical Center (formerly MCV), Kielar's singular purpose was to become a physician. Shortly after her death last week, says Starmer, her family learned that dream would have been realized. Kielar had been accepted to medical school.
PHOTO COURTESY CHARLOTTESVILLE ALBEMARLE RESCUE SQUAD

Charlottesville colleagues of medic Nikki Kielar, who died in a Washington D.C. helicopter crash on January 11, leave the Charlottesville Albemarle Rescue Squad headquarters around 7am on January 18 to attend Kielar's memorial service in Fredericksburg. More than 2,000 people from across the state and nation attended.
PHOTO BY LAUREN BROOKS

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