To the Editor:

Re “E.M.T.s Deserve Pay Equity” (editorial, Sept. 22):

I am asthmatic. Nearly four years ago, I had an asthma attack on the streets of Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Fortunately for me, two good Samaritans saw me struggling and called 911. I sat with them on a street corner, seconds feeling like an eternity, gasping for breath.

I did not think that I would make it. In a minute or two, an ambulance arrived with the equipment needed to get my lungs to work again. The paramedics who took care of me, calmly giving me the meds I needed, encouraged me to hold on as the ambulance raced to the closest emergency room.

One of the paramedics even came back to my hospital bed that evening to visit me to make sure that I was O.K. I have always wished that I had known her name to thank her.

The nameless heroes and heroines who are emergency medical technicians deserve more credit and pay for the lives they save every day. I, for one, am eternally grateful.