Vehicle Rescue
With all that is happening in school, a person would think that it would be logical not to take on any more responsibility, but nooooooo, I had to go stick my neck out and enroll in a vehicle rescue training class through the fire department. I wanted the class pretty badly, especially since I missed my chance at getting into on one that was held about a year ago. VRT classes are hard to find locally and are not usually all that frequent, so when one comes up, it is not a good idea to pass it up.
For every three year certification period, EMT's in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania are required by the PA Department of Health to maintain a certain number of continuing education hours, twelve of which must be in the medical/trauma category. As long as con-ed hours are kept up to date and CPR certifications are current, recertification is processed automatically by the state. That is just to keep your EMT certification though; the other requirements to actually run ambulance or fire calls are the individual's responsibility to keep current. Vehicle Rescue is not a requirement to be an EMT or to run on the ambulance, but it counts as con-ed and is broken up in to three levels: Awareness, Operations, and Technician. All three levels are cross registered with the state fire commissioner as fire training and with the PADOH as con-ed for EMS providers. More info is available at:
www.dsf.health.state.pa.us/health/cwp/view.asp?a=170&q=203353 and
www.osfc.state.pa.us
Copy and paste those URL's to your browser to research them.
This past Saturday was the conclusion of the Operations level of the training. We are taught that disentanglement is removing the vehicle from around the patient, and extrication is then removing the patient from the vehicle. Thanks to the former era of flimsy vehicles built to reduce weight and fuel consumption, some vehicles smash like soda cans. If the patient is still alive after a significant collision, disentanglement and extrication are not always easy and often eat up the "golden hour" of initial emergent patient care. Thankfully the automotive industry is now paying more attention to the safety design of vehicles and many new cars are more stable in crashes. OK, enough of that tangent. Anyway......
Now, I hope I don't disturb you too badly with any graphic mental pictures, but Saturday commenced with much beating, hacking, and prying on junkers to simulate vehicle rescue scenarios with only hand tools. Granted we had a vast array of hand tools, but I learned that you can take the roof off of a car pretty quick with nothing more than a center punch, a windshield saw, and a hacksaw. I learned how to get at a jammed door latch to bust it apart so the door can be open. It is so much easier with hydraulic power tools, cordless power saws, and whatnot but that training is part of the technician level. They wanted us to learn to use hand tools so we appreciate the power tools more, and so that in the event of power tool failure we would not be left clueless. I found out that if you are intent enough, a jammed door can be opened by cutting a hole in the skin of the door and beating vehemently on the latch with a halligan bar and a sledge hammer - rather primitive, but it works. Till we were done with the car it was reduced to a pile of rubble, but we provided just about every conceivable path of extrication for a vehicle that is still on all four wheels.
Some of you who have never seen anything of the sort may have a hard time imagining this, and the very idea of taking this training might seem barbaric and fickle, but remember, accidents happen to even the best of us; you are no exclusion, and no one makes fun of a red-neck when they need one bad enough. We don't cause crashes, and we don't live in an ivory tower, but we do have to know how to get people out of there when they do have an "oops" because they will likely criticize us to no end if we are not proactive (see, my word again) and prepared. There is no sophisticated way to rip a car apart; we just do the bare necessities by focusing on getting the patient out safely and efficiently, not by making a glorious mess and ignoring patient care. I will admit though, it is sort of fun beating around in training on cars that at one time where brand new , but the "fun" disappears pretty quick when it is for real and there is a critically injured patient pinned in there, especially if you know that person. I wouldn't trade the chance to help for much of anything.
This basic vehicle rescue training program is one of many that I hope to add to my "portfolio" of training experiences within the next several years. I hope that through training, higher education, and first handed experience that I will eventually become a highly competent professional in pre-hospital and emergency work. Time will tell.
For more information on vehicle rescue, visit www.rescuetechs.com
For every three year certification period, EMT's in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania are required by the PA Department of Health to maintain a certain number of continuing education hours, twelve of which must be in the medical/trauma category. As long as con-ed hours are kept up to date and CPR certifications are current, recertification is processed automatically by the state. That is just to keep your EMT certification though; the other requirements to actually run ambulance or fire calls are the individual's responsibility to keep current. Vehicle Rescue is not a requirement to be an EMT or to run on the ambulance, but it counts as con-ed and is broken up in to three levels: Awareness, Operations, and Technician. All three levels are cross registered with the state fire commissioner as fire training and with the PADOH as con-ed for EMS providers. More info is available at:
www.dsf.health.state.pa.us/
www.osfc.state.pa.us
Copy and paste those URL's to your browser to research them.
This past Saturday was the conclusion of the Operations level of the training. We are taught that disentanglement is removing the vehicle from around the patient, and extrication is then removing the patient from the vehicle. Thanks to the former era of flimsy vehicles built to reduce weight and fuel consumption, some vehicles smash like soda cans. If the patient is still alive after a significant collision, disentanglement and extrication are not always easy and often eat up the "golden hour" of initial emergent patient care. Thankfully the automotive industry is now paying more attention to the safety design of vehicles and many new cars are more stable in crashes. OK, enough of that tangent. Anyway......
Now, I hope I don't disturb you too badly with any graphic mental pictures, but Saturday commenced with much beating, hacking, and prying on junkers to simulate vehicle rescue scenarios with only hand tools. Granted we had a vast array of hand tools, but I learned that you can take the roof off of a car pretty quick with nothing more than a center punch, a windshield saw, and a hacksaw. I learned how to get at a jammed door latch to bust it apart so the door can be open. It is so much easier with hydraulic power tools, cordless power saws, and whatnot but that training is part of the technician level. They wanted us to learn to use hand tools so we appreciate the power tools more, and so that in the event of power tool failure we would not be left clueless. I found out that if you are intent enough, a jammed door can be opened by cutting a hole in the skin of the door and beating vehemently on the latch with a halligan bar and a sledge hammer - rather primitive, but it works. Till we were done with the car it was reduced to a pile of rubble, but we provided just about every conceivable path of extrication for a vehicle that is still on all four wheels.
Some of you who have never seen anything of the sort may have a hard time imagining this, and the very idea of taking this training might seem barbaric and fickle, but remember, accidents happen to even the best of us; you are no exclusion, and no one makes fun of a red-neck when they need one bad enough. We don't cause crashes, and we don't live in an ivory tower, but we do have to know how to get people out of there when they do have an "oops" because they will likely criticize us to no end if we are not proactive (see, my word again) and prepared. There is no sophisticated way to rip a car apart; we just do the bare necessities by focusing on getting the patient out safely and efficiently, not by making a glorious mess and ignoring patient care. I will admit though, it is sort of fun beating around in training on cars that at one time where brand new , but the "fun" disappears pretty quick when it is for real and there is a critically injured patient pinned in there, especially if you know that person. I wouldn't trade the chance to help for much of anything.
This basic vehicle rescue training program is one of many that I hope to add to my "portfolio" of training experiences within the next several years. I hope that through training, higher education, and first handed experience that I will eventually become a highly competent professional in pre-hospital and emergency work. Time will tell.
For more information on vehicle rescue, visit www.rescuetechs.com
posted by GKStauffer at 19:47
1 Comments:
Hey Gerald, I was looking over your blog for a way to make money as well. Just kidding.
Actually, that sounds like an interesting class. The golden hour is something that we appreciate rather profoundly being in the position of taking care of the folks that you extricate.
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