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Show The One of the youthful accident victims is strapped to a backboard, while, in the background, a trainee works on the injured in the' back seat. Bandages were applied ii to the artificial injuries removed from the car. before the victims were add to the problems of darkness and rain, one of the accident victims was partially hidden in some bushes near the overturned car. Ambulance trainees To Times-Independen- t, Thursday, April 5, 1979 B1 found the boy and treated him on the ground before removing him on a stretcher, Accident provides training for Moabs ambulance crew we need an ambulance- traffic accident. , The two calls set in by Bill Davis The radio crackles, Moab local cars, 10-5- 0 P.I. (injury accident), motion a vital, often . lifesaving effort by law across from Thompson Body Shop. At the same time, on another channel, two electronic notes and need an ambulance; enforcement personnel and members of the extensive training and emergency equipment, the work of the ambu- lance crew can make the difference between life and death for the victim of an accident. As part of that training, last Wednesday evening an and they were wheeled to the waiting ambulances and the exercise came to an end. The seriousness of the training session was somewhat lightened when a Deputy directing traffic reported that an to the aceyewitness cident insisted that he had seen the car which ran the station wagon off the road and was willing slacken, as the victims rollover accident was were examined and created by some of the treated where they lay in crew members as an exer- the pickup, bushes and cise for trainees. To com- the overturned car. As is often the case in plete the authenticity, the authentic-lookin- g to testify. As I watched the trainees work, I was taken back to a similar rainy night four years ago, when I lay in a muddy ditch following a accident motorcycle-ca- r which left, me with a shattered pelvis and internal injuries, far from Perhaps I can speak for the many victims of accident and illness who have been aided by the volunteers of the Grand County Ambulance in ex- pressing an inadequate thank you. but deeply-fel- t It is perhaps appropriate that the crew members receive no pay for their work, as there can be no price tag on the gift of trainees were not told real accidents, rescue that the accident had workers were hampered been set up. by the confined space, poor lighting and rain. Prior to making the Ambulance crew memmedical facilities, call, the crew members, bers were trained to treat assisted by Val Thomp- major injuries and imanxiously awaiting the life. arrival of the EMTs. son, who donated the mobilize patients before station a rolled car, attempting to move them. wagon over in a ditch. Such efforts do much to Further realism was reduce additional injury. created with the appliThe primary goal of the e severe cation of is to stabilize each EMTs injuries from a training before attempting patient kit and liberal use of some They are transportation. volunartificial blood to link to radio a assisted by teer victims. medical personnel at the The volunteers were hospital, who monitor then instructed to crawl vital signs and make into the wreck and moan recommendations. Some and groan when the am- - of the crew members have bulance arrives. Ad- taken additional training ditional complications to become As part of the training for new members of the Grand County Ambulance crew, last were added with one vic- who are authorized to rollover accident was created on tim hidden in some near- start I.V.s and adWednesday night, Mar. 28, an authentic-lookin- g Holyoak Lane. Prior to the arrival of the ambulances, a station wagon, donated by by bushes and two in- minister certain drugs. This additional training Val Thompson, was rolled on its side into a ditch. jured people in a pickup truck which had apparent proves particularly useful with heart cases, where tly run into the station the patient may be wagon. clinically dead when The scene was com- the ambulance arrives. I pleted by two Sheriff cars saw a graphic demonand one Moab City Police stration of these unit manned by officers techniques last summer who had volunteered to when a man suffered a ' assist in the project. heart attack in his car in near City Market. When all was readiness, a call was When the ambulance placed to the Sheriffs arrived, the mans heart dispatch office and the had stopped and he was trainees, who were at a not breathing. Using CPR Allen and electroshock, the at meeting res Memorial, were notified that a two-camultiple established a heartbeat injury accident had taken and respiration, place on Holyoak Lane. something, that would Within minutes, both have been impossible a ambulances had arrived few years ago. the scene and the As each of the six vicThe last of the victims of the training accident on Holyoak Lane last Wednesday is rescue work began. tims (most on were carefully ex- carefully removed from the wreck on a backboard. Crew members who organized the Although crew members the tricated from the car, training session expressed gratitude to Val Thompson for donating and setting up To prevent further injury to accident victims, the trainees treated them prior to soon discovered , m stretches were prepared the overturned car, along with Sheriffs Deputies and Police officers who volunteered artlial them from the overturned car. On the right, a crew member removes the at.ure removing to provide traffic control. windshield to gain access to the front seat. juries, the pace did not Grand County Ambu-"W- e lance crew. With their life-lik- para-medic- s, para-medic- r, back-board- iWMc , s) : 'rfriTl ''' - I S A v ?" ' ' ' T 1 V , V ' .4 t . M' Immediately after arriving on the scene of the carefully prepared rollover accident, the EMTs check for the number and location of the injured. Ambulance crew V trainees were not told prior to the call that the accident Following treatment and immobilization, each of the six were loaded into an ambulance for transportation to victims of the accident set up as a Allen Memorial Hospital, had been set up. training exercise for Grand County Ambulance trainees pre-arrang- ed |