Ronnie Doumitt, a former detective with the Lee’s Summit Police Department, felt the pull to act when his friend and co-worker, Josh Ward, became extremely ill on Thursday, April 16, 2015.
“He was rushed to St. Luke’s Hospital in Lee’s Summit, complaining of a sore arm and fever. They then rushed him to St. Luke’s on the Plaza, where he began the fight for his life,” he explained. “He was diagnosed with a drastic case of flesh-eating bacteria, Necrotizing Fasciitis. As soon as we heard about it, I ran to the hospital and met with his wife Melissa. I was reassigned from my case load to meet their needs by my chief at that time.”
They knew it would be a long battle if he survived at all. Ronnie watched as Josh’s wife, Melissa, and their three kids started to suffer financially. His department began to fundraise for them. He described seeing how the community supported the Ward family as an amazing experience to be a part of even though it was traumatic and awful.
“He had 27 surgeries in a four-month period. We were planning a funeral when God truly stepped in when modern science said he wouldn’t survive. It was a miracle! He woke from his medically induced coma, and it was like a light switch went on,” he continued. “He was able to focus on his recovery and walked out of the hospital on his own two feet. The sad part of the whole situation is that Josh lost his profession over his illness. Our amazing Chief Forbes rehired him and he is now working as supervisor in our records unit. I stay in constant contact with them, and they are doing well.”
While he was in the hospital, Ronnie was waiting for resources to reach out to me from the state county and city, and no one stepped in. He decided to change that and contacted his lifelong friend, Brett Reinhard, who is a CPA in Blue Springs, Reinhard and Kovacs CPA to start the 501c3.
Deron Cherry partnered with Answering the Call about 7 years ago and his foundation has been in our community 30 years doing amazing work. They decided they would be one of the four non- profits they would support within our community.
“It has been an amazing partnership, friendship and blessing to our organization,” he noted.
Their bylaws state first responders must have a severe catastrophic injury or an aggressive illness that is non-duty or duty related. In 2023, Kansas City alone on both sides of the state line, had a total of eight officers shot in the line of duty.
“We were involved within 12 hours of all those incidents. My goal is to alleviate the financial strain within hours. Studies have shown if you can alleviate financial strain for officers, it improves their mental health immensely,” he continued. “They do not get paid enough for the jobs they do. If you take a first responder off their job for months at a time, they are almost immediately impacted financially. We bridge that financial gap and provide financial resources and other resources to them and their families.”
Since inception, ATC has donated back over $875,000, and in 2023 they donated $168,000 back to local first responders. They are the only such resource in Missouri and Kansas.
“God is the one who led me down this path for whatever reason nine years ago. I have pushed through and continued to grow this need that is not being met. The community overwhelmingly supports it. I retired early from the department in 2022, and now run this big, marvelous beast full time,” he smiled.
Visit atc911.org.