You could say that a once-critically ill patient in Citrus County – emergency medical services – is now on the road to a full recovery.

Such was the optimism that was shown at Friday’s dedication of the new Nature Coast Emergency Medical Services building off Homosassa Trail in Lecanto.

Citrus County Commissioner Gary Bartell summed it up in remarks to those attending the dedication ceremony.

“About a decade ago, because of the cost of providing emergency medical services, it was no longer feasible for the private sector to stay in the business,” Bartell said. That meant that it was then up to the board of county commissioners to do something about it.

Originally, Bartell said, the county helped develop the idea of a not-for-profit service, and began subsidizing a $1 million budget for the fledgling service. “That has been reduced drastically,” Bartell said, “even though the calls for service and the population have increased here in Citrus County.” The ultimate goal when it comes to budget, Bartell said, is for the county to no longer have to subsidize the service.

Looking to the futureStanding tall now is a new $1.4 million, 8,500-square foot facility, also known as the Administration and Education Building, a consolidation of five locations that were used in the past. Construction, which was begun in June 2008, was completed ahead of schedule and within budget.

Michael Hall, CEO and President of Nature Coast EMS, is optimistic about the future, as well. “We’re planning to achieve a very visible presence in the health care system in Citrus County,” Hall said.

Not only will the facility be able to provide necessary training for other emergency responders, but the public will have access to training, as well. “Members of the general public will be offered CPR and first aid classes so that they may serve as a educated Good Samaritan to offer lifesaving care before our pre-hospital care EMS crews arrive at the scene of a medical emergency,” he said.

Hall asked attendees at the dedication, “Who knows how many candles have been added to a cake, how many have lived to see a graduation, a wedding or waiting to see a toddler’s first steps if it weren’t for the men and women who serve Nature Coast EMS ambulances?”

Emery Hensley, Chairman of the Board for Nature Coast EMS, acknowledged the role the county commission has played in the success of the service. “I think the new facility shows a commitment and concern by the Board of County Commissioners,” Hensley said.

“Nature Coast EMS has a cardiac success rate that is five times better than average. Seventy percent of Nature Coast EMS paramedics are educated to the level of Critical Care Paramedics – that’s a specialized care that trains team members to care for the most critically ill and injured patients.”

The new facility also boasts a bevy of state-of-the-art medical devices, including a coming means of uploading a patient’s data directly to a hospital.

The public views the future of emergency medical care
Large crowds showed up on Saturday in the wake of Friday’s official dedication for a Grand Opening event. They saw firsthand the capabilities that will be offered though the facility, and an eager staff answered every question put to them while showing the actual equipment that would be used for medical emergencies.

The residents of Citrus County, Bartell said, should feel comfortable with the services provided, and added, “Today, the government is always being criticized … but this is the type of business that government should be in.”

Source

Great EMS Podcast!  I love it.  Best episode yet.

www.emsgarage.com

ROCHESTER — Babies arrive in their own sweet time.

But some little ones make their debut faster than others, as Colleen Hathaway and Joseph Detrani found out when, just 20 minutes after her first contraction, Ms. Hathaway gave birth in the the bedroom of their home on Braley Hill Road.

“When I got out of the shower, my water broke. The next thing I knew I was getting contractions a minute apart. Joe called 911 and said, ‘My girlfriend is having a baby,” Ms. Hathaway said of the night of Aug. 13.

Answering the call was dispatcher Tracy Eldridge, who notified Rochester and Freetown rescue personnel.

“When I heard that the contractions were a minute apart, her water had broken and this was her third child, I got as many people out there as fast as I could,” Ms. Eldridge said.

Nine first responders came rushing from all parts of Rochester and Freetown just in time to deliver Madison Nicole Detrani at 8:50 pm.

The healthy baby girl weighed 8 pounds,14 ounces and was 21 inches long.

“It was a textbook birth,” said Capt. Gene Rymszewicz, a paramedic with the Freetown Fire Department.

“The baby came out perfect, face down, and pinked up right away.”

Freetown personnel were called in through a mutual aid agreement because of their advanced life support training.

According to Rochester EMT Kevin Richard, members of the department dropped everything to respond.

“Five of us were at a baseball game that evening. I was picking up a pizza after the game when I got the call. I don’t think she (Ms. Hathaway) noticed that we were in sports uniforms and that basically a baseball team showed up to deliver her baby,” said the EMT who, at the time, was serving in his capacity as vice president of the Freetown Youth Athletic Association.

Rochester paramedic Debi Ladd was in her nightgown and on her way to bed, but quickly got dressed and rushed out the door when she heard what was happening.

“I’m another woman and wanted to be there for (Ms. Hathaway). … Paramedics do things other people can’t even imagine. It can be pretty horrible, and with every call you take a piece of it with you. But a baby being born is the most joyful part of the job. I was beaming all day long the next day,” Ms. Ladd said.

Also responding were Freetown firefighter/paramedic Paul Ashley, and Rochester EMTs Harrison Harding, Wendy Ashworth, Jeff Eldridge, Lyndsay Harding and Danny Ferreira.

A tense moment, rescue personnel said, was when it was discovered that the umbilical cord was wrapped around the baby’s neck, a situation quickly corrected by Capt. Rymszewicz.

There also was the issue of Ms. Hathaway’s two older children, Dylan, 5, and Austin, 20 months, being in the house at the time of the birth.

“My 5-year-old was traumatized that night. He had a traumatic experience in January when my grandmother had a stroke while playing with him. The ambulance came and took her, but she never came back. She passed away. So when the ambulance came for me, he was terrified,” Ms. Hathaway said, adding that she was grateful to see rescue personnel taking the time to calm her son.

Source

Emergency Medical Service providers from all areas of the Tri-Cities are bringing back an educational program.

With a residential boom continuing in the Prescott area and a large number of elderly retirees continuing to move here, new streets are springing up in hills and valleys that once saw only javelina and antelope.

The problem for northern Arizona’s largest privately owned ambulance company is keeping up with all that growth, because in a medical emergency, seconds matter.

That’s why LifeLine Ambulance, headquartered in Prescott, is beefing up its investment in Geographical Information Services, better known as GIS.

Read Article

Sal D’Ambrosia offered a little advice Monday while fishing through 8 inches of ice covering the south side of Lake Loveland, with his son, Sage, and friend Tom Slezak.

“If you get out on the ice,” he said pointing to the west, “you should stay away from that inlet area.”

It’s sound advice because ice conditions aren’t the same all over the lake, one fact that echoed what Loveland firefighters would like to remind people about ice safety after an ice rescue Sunday on Lake Loveland.

Loveland resident Kim Tyson fell through the ice Sunday on the north side of Lake Loveland near the swim beach area, after she ventured out 15 or 20 feet from shore to save her dog, who also fell through the ice, said Scott Pringle, a spokesman for the Loveland Fire and Rescue Department.

He said Tyson could touch the bottom of the lake to keep her head above water before a paramedic from Loveland’s Thompson Valley Emergency Medical Services threw her a rope from the shore.

Read Article

Action Care Ambulance Service was in need of addition snuggle quilts from volunteers of Firehouse Quilts last month. These ambulances not only serve the metro Denver area but out in some of our more ‘rural’ and suburban areas. You’ll see them almost everywhere you go, available to help when it is needed.
Be sure to see all 3 photos to the right and click directly on a picture for a larger view of it.

64 additional snuggle quilts were delivered November 16, 2007 by Jane Layng (FHQ volunteer) and Dusty Darrah, organizer of Firehouse Quilts.

A new group of technicians were in a training meeting when Jane & I arrived with replacement quilts. We invited them outside for a quick picture and to educate them on their FHQ ‘job’ to give these quilts out to children they see on their emergency runs.

READ ARTICLE

Two Clute EMS ambulances scheduled to be replaced this year instead are getting a makeover in order to save money.

City Council unanimously authorized the remounting of the current ambulance boxes on new chassis instead of replacing the vehicles Thursday.

“We’re basically getting two new ambulances and saving $85,000,” Mayor Calvin Shiflet said.

Unit 1207, a 2003 Ford E450, is supposed to be replaced this year, and unit 1208, a 2004 Ford E350, is due to be retired in 2009, Clute EMS Director Mike Waguespack said. Ambulances are scheduled to be replaced every four years, he said.

“Both of these units have spent more time in the shop for engine and electrical problems than in service to the point that a rental had to be brought in for a couple of weeks while being repaired,” he said.

The cost of replacing the two would be about $240,000, and there is not enough in the equipment replacement fund to do that, Waguespack said. Since there have been no problems with the boxes, which house patients when they are transferred and all the medical equipment, Waguespack requested to remount them on new chassis. The chassis is the actual vehicle.

“We will be putting the old on new,” he said.

READ ARTICLE

This year’s Santa’s Helper is likely the closest any of the past recipients have come to actually following in St. Nick’s footsteps.

Denise Gupton, a lieutenant and paramedic at Campbellsville/Taylor County Rescue, received the award this year for her work with Rescue’s Toys for Tots program. The Campbellsville Kiwanis Club presents the award each year at Miller Park just before Thanksgiving. The ceremony coincides with the lighting of Christmas lights at the park.

Gupton, who always attends the ceremony, came this year thinking she knew whom this

years’ recipient would be. Naturally, she was surprised when the name read was her own.

“I was very honored and very surprised,” Gupton said. “They kind of floored me.”

Rescue Director Dan Durham, who’s known Gupton since she first came to Rescue in 1992, said Gupton is a natural choice for the award.

“She is one of the most caring people I know. She has a real soft spot for kids. She is very deserving.”

READ FULL ARTICLE

“It is helpful to us, particularly because the ambulances get 1,200 calls a year,” said Lou Menendez, who has been a member of Headquarters Co. on Pocono Road since 1980.
The ambulances are housed at the Center Fire Co. on Route 133, adjacent to Center Elementary School.
Candice Smith, a member of the breakfast committee, said that she didn’t know how much money would be raised from the breakfast, which was held Nov. 16 at the Candlewood Inn, and the program booklet that was distributed at the session.
However, she said that last year’s event generated about $7,000 for the municipal Social Services Department’s activities, including its emergency fund.
The inaugural breakfast in 2005 provided its proceeds to the town to go toward the purchase of a police dog.
Mrs. Smith said that the event ushers in the Thanksgiving season , since it is held on the Friday of the week before the holiday.
“This time of year, in particular, is for giving to others,” she said in an interview at the breakfast, which attracted slightly more than 200 people.
There were 21 sponsored tables. Additionally, the guests at each table provided additional funds in a contribution envelope that was distributed at each table.
The table sponsors included the Brookfield Chamber of Commerce, local developer Dennis Stone and Dick Blessey, the owner of Aldine Metals.

READ FULL STORY

Three men are giving up Christmas to drive an ambulance 3,500 miles (5,632km) from Anglesey to Gambia. Their 1969 ex-military Land Rover ambulance will then be donated to a health clinic in Africa.

One of the drivers, Guto Roberts, said it was going to be “one heck of an adventure”.

They will set off on 19 December with a convoy of about 20 vehicles taking part in the Plymouth Banjul Rally to raise money for health care in Gambia.

Mr Roberts, Huw Owen and David Griffiths, who are all 27 and from Anglesey, will sleep in the back of the ambulance en-route and hope to arrive in Gambia after three weeks on the road.

Mr Roberts described the vehicle as “very sturdy, very slow and very thirsty”.

READ FULL ARTICLE 

GUILDERLAND, N.Y. — It was a very special holiday for one woman who hasn’t been home since January.

Maria Hofer is a resident at Our Lady of Mercy Life Center in Guilderland and has a condition that makes it unsafe for her to travel. A team of EMT’s decided to make the extra effort and bring the woman home for the holiday in order for her to spend Thanksgiving with her family and her family couldn’t have been happier.

“I am so glad that she was chosen, because we wouldn’t have been able to do it if it hadn’t been for the Guilderland Ambulance Association,” said Lori Iannelli, HoferÔø?s daughter.

READ ARTICLE HERE

VIDEO

The Mexican town of Gomez Farias often used a pickup truck to rush people to the hospital. But thanks to some generous New Mexicans, the town now has a new ambulance.

Nancy Kennedy lives in Albuquerque, but grew up in Gomez Farias. She told the owner of Superior Ambulance about her home town’s plight, and he immediately stepped up.

Press the play button to Cris Ornelas story on Gomez Farias new ambulance.

GO TO THE NEWS WEBSITE AND WATCH THE VIDEO.  PLEASE DONATE TO HELP THIS TOWN!!!

READ ARTICLE AND VIDEO HERE

A Philadelphia Fire Chief made more than a new rank today. She made city history.

“I think it’s exciting for everybody, the city and the department. It’s time for things to change,” said Schweizer.

The 39-year-old Schweizer joined the fire department as a paramedic twelve years ago. There were five female medics and firefighters in the department.

“You just had to fit in with the guys because you didn’t want to create any controversy. Now women are more openly accepted,” she said.

Now there are 50 women in the ranks of the fire department, but Commissioner Lloyd Ayers said the department needs more change.

READ FULL ARTICLE