At Monadnock Community Hospital, physician’s assistant Lauren Morton is being remembered as a beloved member of the emergency department team.

Morton, 44, of Francestown, died Aug. 19. She had worked at the hospital since 2017. 

Dr. Eric Lasky, medical director of the Emergency Department for MCH, said Morton was his right-hand person. He said she handled a lot of the presenting at events and scheduling, and always worked to take on everything she could. 

“She would be the ideal person you want for the job,” Lasky said.

Lasky said Morton was loved by everyone who walked in the doors of the hospital, but on a personal level, and, “She was one of my favorite people. She had a big heart.”

In the aftermath of Morton’s death, Laskey said he is trying to focus on himself, while also reaching out to make sure everyone is OK and getting their needs met, too. He added the hospital is responding “just like how you’d hope” and being good with keeping the community together. He said Morton was the type of person that defined the community within the hospital.   

Karen O’Donnell, a registered nurse at MCH, said over the years she has worked at the hospital, she and Morton became very close and attended conferences together. 

“She was a very giving person, always putting everyone's needs ahead of hers,” O’Donnell said.

O’Donnell said Morton had one of the brightest smiles she had ever seen, something that was echoed in the hospital’s Facebook post announcing her death.

Along with working at the hospital, O’Donnell said Morton at one point had five rescue dogs and eventually wanted to have a rescue farm so she could rescue other animals like pigs, cows and goats. 

Additionally, she had a love for woodworking, O’Donnell said. At one point, she made a handcrafted rocking chair for one of the doctors. 

“She left a mark on a lot of people's lives. She was incredibly loved,” O’Donnell said.

Michael Hutchinson, assistant chief of ambulance services in Wilton, said he had known Morton since 2006 when he was a paramedic student, and described her as everybody’s big sister.

When Hutchinson met Morton, she was an adjunct for the New England EMS Institute in Manchester. Hutchinson said when he was a student, his classmates were ahead of him, so Morton pulled him aside and told him politely and directly to do better. 

“And it slowly over the last 18 years went from someone who was knowledgeable professionally and motivating to someone who was passionate clinically,” Hutchinson said. 

Hutchinson said he later worked with Morton when he started his own company, FireMed, which he sold in January. He said the company helped train EMTs and advanced EMTs and during the COVID-19 pandemic helped with the vaccine effort. As a part of the vaccine effort, Hutchinson said they helped vaccinate hundreds of patients who were unable to leave their homes, something he said could not have been possible without Morton. 

Hutchinson said in his field of work and in the medical field, death is something that happens all the time, but Morton was different. 

“We sort of develop this shell when it comes to death; you kind of get used to it a little bit,” Hutchinson said. “But every once in a while there's somebody that cracks it a little bit, and when it comes to Lauren, she completely shatters it.”

Morton also worked with Jaffrey-Rindge Memorial Ambulance as assistant medical director. Madison Steed, an advanced EMT for the company, said she has known Morton since 2018 when Steed was doing clinicals. Steed said Morton was paired with her during that time, and pushed her and everyone else to always do better. 

“She believed in everyone and wasn’t afraid to say it,” Steed said.

Steed said Morton's advocacy for EMS providers was immense because she knew the job and had worked as one, so she had a deeper level of understanding and respect for what EMTs do. When Steed was still in her clinicals, she said the hospital she was working with was not a very good fit. Steed said Morton went out of her way to talk to Steed’s instructors to make sure she was getting the experience she needed.

Morton was assistant medical director for Souhegan Valley Ambulance in New Ipswich, which shared its condolences in a Aug. 21 Facebook post.

“Lauren was a dear friend to us as an organization, and to many of our EMS providers on a personal level. She was a fierce advocate for the betterment of EMS in the region, and her loss will be felt for many months to come,” the post states.

Peterborough Fire Chief Ed Walker said he worked with Morton regularly, as she was the co-medical director for the department. He described her as a “wonderful human being” who was supportive and friendly. He also said she was easily adaptable and could handle any type of person, whether nice or mean, and could understand any situation.

“She had an uncanny knack to defuse situations,” Walker said. 

Walker said he is not sure if the impact she had on the Emergency Department and EMS is fully realized yet. Walker said she gave a lot of support and took on a lot of work.

“What she did, she just sort of did,” Walker said.

Lasky said since Morton’s death, everyone has been trying to fill in the best they could, as she typically worked 13 to 14 shifts a month. He said he was supposed to be out of town for his birthday, but opted to work instead to do his part to help out. The loss of Morton is huge, he said, and finding someone who did all of what she did will be difficult.

“We basically don’t have the luxury of shutting down the department,” Lasky said.