More Vehicle Rescue
Well, this Saturday resulted in another training session and more cars getting chopped up . This time we had the "big toys" out to play. We cut doors and roofs off and lifted dashes with power tools and generally practiced some of the stuff we had learned before.
I couldn't help but to be amused by watching firefighters from separate fire departments argue over whose hydraulic tools where better - something analogous to other people trying to argue with me about Chevy's. It was funny to watch because I didn't really have an opinion, at least not until we put those tools to the test. I really could care less as long as the job gets done, but there was one guy who insisted that his Hurst cutters was better. I was trying to cut through a certain part of the car that was about 3/4 to 1 inch solid steel and his wonderful Hurst couldn't do it, so one of the "diehard" Holmatro guys went and got his precious toy out. It sliced and diced the shaft almost like butter. Of course I had to have an opinion after that. Who wouldn't?
Hurst tools are generally black and gold colored, and Holmatro tools are orange. The Holmatro dude was fussing about how good tools are always painted orange, so I made a remark about how I had always thought that John Deere green was the color to have. He got this big goofy grin and came back with, "Heh heh... [fire]'trucks are red, tractors are green, and rescue tools are orange!"
We did some practice in the morning and they showed us how to do a whole bunch of vehicle rescue techniques. Then, while we where eating lunch, a bunch of guys that were not part of the class set up a scenario for us. They had us respond from Rehrsburg station 27 to their location and give it a try. We had five vehicles with I think at least seven patients. Paint a picture of this in your mind. We had a box truck laying on its passenger's side, a mid-size car also laying on its driver's side with its roof up against the back end of the box truck, and also a pick up truck with its front end pushed into the top of the box truck. There were also two other vehicles, one car and the other a second pickup. The car was upside down with its front end on top of the bed of the small pickup.
These weren't all "normal" patients either. There was one really big dude that had self-extricated and was running around carrying a barrel to simulate a psych patient spreading hazmat everywhere. There was some guy out there in one of the other cars acting like a terrorist. He was screaming in what I think might have been another language, but I couldn't hear him very good from where I was. They say he had a pack of road flares strapped to his chest to simulate explosives, and he was threatening to blow us all up! There was a baby doll that had been ejected from one of the vehicles and was laying on top of the box truck with one of its legs through a hole in the side of the wall. Since I'm an EMT, I was assigned as the interior rescuer to assist with the unresponsive driver of the car that was laying on its side behind the box truck, so from where I was I didn't get to see everything else that was happening. Apparently there were a couple of illegal immigrant stowaways in the back of the box truck. We just kept finding more and more patients. The driver of the overturned box truck was still inside of the cab, but I think he was standing up. The pickup that was rammed against the undercarriage had an entrapped driver and pediatric passenger.
Our unresponsive driver was the last one extricated because he was really way in there and there was no easy way out. We thought about taking him out through the back window by either cutting or spreading it open wider, but then opted for a different plan. We would have had to move the back of the seat out from behind the patient to take him out the rear window. We weren't having much luck with that because with so many vehicles, the tools we wanted were all being used elsewhere at first. Before we could even gain access to the patient, we had to stabilize the car so it wouldn't rock or tip while we got the patient out, and we had to get the back door of the box truck open if we where going to go out through the car roof. First I got the baby doll off of the top of the box truck until they had the car stabilized, and only then they stuffed me in the car with the unresponsive driver to take care of him. While another part of the team was extricating the stowaways through a hole they made in the box's ceiling (remember both the box truck and our car were both on their sides) our part of the team was cutting a hole in the roof of the car. We took the driver out through the roof, through the back of the box truck, and out through the hole in the ceiling that they had already made. From the time we started till our last patient was extricated was approximately 45 minutes.
After everything was done, they pulled us all into a group and had a critique of how it all went. There was definitely a lot of things that could have been done differently and better, but they said that all things considered, 45 minutes for 7+ patients wasn't too bad.
Training like this is fun and gets members from neighboring departments to work together. I think that more of this kind of thing would be good. I would like to see more practice scenarios like this one happen. If departments never practice together, but have to work together at real incidents, it seams like they get all the more critical of each other. I think interdepartmental training is conducive to good teamwork and better community involvement. Training like this happens occasionally in this area, but, in my opinion, not often enough.
I couldn't help but to be amused by watching firefighters from separate fire departments argue over whose hydraulic tools where better - something analogous to other people trying to argue with me about Chevy's. It was funny to watch because I didn't really have an opinion, at least not until we put those tools to the test. I really could care less as long as the job gets done, but there was one guy who insisted that his Hurst cutters was better. I was trying to cut through a certain part of the car that was about 3/4 to 1 inch solid steel and his wonderful Hurst couldn't do it, so one of the "diehard" Holmatro guys went and got his precious toy out. It sliced and diced the shaft almost like butter. Of course I had to have an opinion after that. Who wouldn't?
Hurst tools are generally black and gold colored, and Holmatro tools are orange. The Holmatro dude was fussing about how good tools are always painted orange, so I made a remark about how I had always thought that John Deere green was the color to have. He got this big goofy grin and came back with, "Heh heh... [fire]'trucks are red, tractors are green, and rescue tools are orange!"
We did some practice in the morning and they showed us how to do a whole bunch of vehicle rescue techniques. Then, while we where eating lunch, a bunch of guys that were not part of the class set up a scenario for us. They had us respond from Rehrsburg station 27 to their location and give it a try. We had five vehicles with I think at least seven patients. Paint a picture of this in your mind. We had a box truck laying on its passenger's side, a mid-size car also laying on its driver's side with its roof up against the back end of the box truck, and also a pick up truck with its front end pushed into the top of the box truck. There were also two other vehicles, one car and the other a second pickup. The car was upside down with its front end on top of the bed of the small pickup.
These weren't all "normal" patients either. There was one really big dude that had self-extricated and was running around carrying a barrel to simulate a psych patient spreading hazmat everywhere. There was some guy out there in one of the other cars acting like a terrorist. He was screaming in what I think might have been another language, but I couldn't hear him very good from where I was. They say he had a pack of road flares strapped to his chest to simulate explosives, and he was threatening to blow us all up! There was a baby doll that had been ejected from one of the vehicles and was laying on top of the box truck with one of its legs through a hole in the side of the wall. Since I'm an EMT, I was assigned as the interior rescuer to assist with the unresponsive driver of the car that was laying on its side behind the box truck, so from where I was I didn't get to see everything else that was happening. Apparently there were a couple of illegal immigrant stowaways in the back of the box truck. We just kept finding more and more patients. The driver of the overturned box truck was still inside of the cab, but I think he was standing up. The pickup that was rammed against the undercarriage had an entrapped driver and pediatric passenger.
Our unresponsive driver was the last one extricated because he was really way in there and there was no easy way out. We thought about taking him out through the back window by either cutting or spreading it open wider, but then opted for a different plan. We would have had to move the back of the seat out from behind the patient to take him out the rear window. We weren't having much luck with that because with so many vehicles, the tools we wanted were all being used elsewhere at first. Before we could even gain access to the patient, we had to stabilize the car so it wouldn't rock or tip while we got the patient out, and we had to get the back door of the box truck open if we where going to go out through the car roof. First I got the baby doll off of the top of the box truck until they had the car stabilized, and only then they stuffed me in the car with the unresponsive driver to take care of him. While another part of the team was extricating the stowaways through a hole they made in the box's ceiling (remember both the box truck and our car were both on their sides) our part of the team was cutting a hole in the roof of the car. We took the driver out through the roof, through the back of the box truck, and out through the hole in the ceiling that they had already made. From the time we started till our last patient was extricated was approximately 45 minutes.
After everything was done, they pulled us all into a group and had a critique of how it all went. There was definitely a lot of things that could have been done differently and better, but they said that all things considered, 45 minutes for 7+ patients wasn't too bad.
Training like this is fun and gets members from neighboring departments to work together. I think that more of this kind of thing would be good. I would like to see more practice scenarios like this one happen. If departments never practice together, but have to work together at real incidents, it seams like they get all the more critical of each other. I think interdepartmental training is conducive to good teamwork and better community involvement. Training like this happens occasionally in this area, but, in my opinion, not often enough.
posted by GKStauffer at 17:12
1 Comments:
Your training sounds quite fascinating and would have been fun to observe.
As for the flu shot, my uncle who is an RN said it was possible I had been exposed to the flu before getting the shot, but getting the same reaction for the third time suggests that it is entirely possible that I'm allergic to certain components of it.
Your theories are also possible. I am under a great deal of stress with school/work and tend to get sick toward the end of the semesters since I'm in nursing school. I had not thought of the vaccine not being attenuated enough. That could also be possible since I know of 4 other co-workers who ended up with the same symptoms I have. One of them is allergic to eggs but wanted the shot anyway. So maybe I'm allergic to eggs too. Interesting thought.
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