PALM BEACH GARDENS — A local hero was honored Tuesday afternoon at Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center.
Ryan Winkelman not only works as a nurse at the hospital but he also is a paramedic/fire captain with Palm Beach Gardens Fire Rescue. He has been with the agency for 16 years and the hospital since 2020.
In a surprise, he received the Tenet Heroes Award and becoming, the 22nd inductee this year in the company's Hall of Fame for his service to the community.
"It's a great feeling to be able to serve this community and do what you're trained to do and be a part of it," Winkelman said, who is a husband and father. "I don't feel like a hero, I'm just doing what my job is really."
On Tuesday, he was working with the fire department and his colleagues brought him to the hospital for a surprise.
"I was completely shocked I still didn't really know what was actually happening, what I was coming in for," Winkleman said. "Obviously, everybody was here so I was kind of blown away to know that I was becoming the Tenet Hero."
Several firefighters and hospital personnel were on hand.
"Ryan really epitomizes just everything there is to be a hero because he lives it, sleeps it, breathes it every day with what he does and how he acts and how he treats his patients and us," Jennifer Scott, the emergency room director at the hospital, said.
Winkelman joined the hospital team in the middle of COVID-19 because he knew how great the need was. After Hurricane Ian hit the Gulf Coast, he volunteered to deploy at Lee County Healthcare system and ended up staying 11 days instead of seven so he could keep helping people.
"Not only did he decide that being a paramedic and serving the community was important, that wasn't enough for him. He decided to go to nursing school after that," Scott said. "And then he decided to be an ER nurse while still being a paramedic, and that wasn't even enough. Then he decided that he was going to go volunteer during the hurricane for Ian and helping not only the community rebuild but his company and his firefighters rebuild."
If Winkelman brings a patient in as a member of fire rescue, he’ll come back off the clock to spend time with them.
