This Week in EMS: A Recap for December 8 - 14, 2007
Responders became busy in the Northeast Thursday after a deadly winter storm moved in from the Plains and Midwest.
Responders became busy in the Northeast Thursday after a deadly winter storm moved in from the Plains and Midwest, where hundreds of thousands of people remained without power. The storm has been blamed for 35 deaths, primarily from traffic accidents, as it moved through the middle of the country.
Some areas were expecting up to a foot of snow, and many schools closed in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Dozens of traffic accidents had already been reported on Connecticut roads in the early hours of snowfall.
"We're having, I won't say a crisis, but we have an abundance of crashes literally all across the state on main and secondary roads," said state police Lt. J. Paul Vance.
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Nine people were transported to area hospitals after a multiple vehicle crash in Gastonia, North Carolina Wednesday afternoon. The crash involved six vehicles, including an ambulance with a patient onboard.
Police reported that an elderly man with a medical condition lost control on Cox Road near Interstate 85. He then struck the ambulance, continued down the road, and struck two other vehicles. One of those vehicles then hit a truck and that truck hit another car.
Of the nine people taken to the hospital, two were taken in emergency traffic, local news reported.
See the article online at 9 Injured in Gastonia, NC Pile-Up.
The search for a missing Alaska medical helicopter was abandoned Monday after a week-long search failed to find any signs of life of the three people who remain missing: the pilot, patient, and flight paramedic Cameron Carter, 24, of Kenai.
The decision came two days after searchers found the body of flight nurse John Stumpff and a door from the BK117 Eurocopter on the north shore of Passage Canal near Whittier. Authorities believe the LifeGuard helicopter is under water too deep for divers to explore.
Search efforts had also been hampered by freezing rain and poor visibility. For additional information visit:
- Search for Alaska Medical Helicopter Abandoned after Fruitless Week
- Medevac Debris, Body Found in Alaska
Rescue personnel who responded to last week's mall shooting in Nebraska spent time this week trying to heal from the experience, in which a 19-year-old opened fire at a busy store, killing eight people and wounding five before killing himself.
A mandatory counseling session for fire and EMS personnel was held Wednesday evening, said acting assistant chief Joe Fuxa of the Omaha Fire Department.
"It's a way to bring focus to what they just went through," he said. Counselors tried to get emergency crews to talk about any resulting feelings from the incident, such as anxiety or depression, he said. Responders were also told that free, voluntary follow-up counseling is available.
Papillion fire chief Bill Bowes, who was one of the counselors at Wednesday's session, said the most common emotion expressed at Wednesday's counseling session was the same one people in the community were expressing: disbelief that it happened there.
For more visit the following articles:
Controversy brewed in busy Paterson, New Jersey this week in the wake of a plan to phase out civilian EMTs and have firefighters assume their duties. Mayor Jose "Joey" Torres' said the plan was introduced because it would save money and because the civilian EMTs often fail to show up for work.
Tina Hines, president of the Paterson Emergency Medical Technicians Association, defended her group this week, saying that her 37 EMTs are "playing against a stacked deck." She said it is difficult to staff shifts because of a city instituted a hiring freeze in 2005. "We were downsized, and we don't have anyone to work," she said. For more details visit New Jersey EMTs Accused of Skipping Work.
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