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Show f , ' f fl If'! i j I II 1 , i 1 i if - ; - I S V- - """" ii - ti -t -- ; H - , - ' - ,y - & H 4 " t - i , i - - ,y , f not, . " ; v -y w -- - K& ; - u ' - -v; A I y - yw ':''- :-:,.y;v ny I ; tc - v " -( O""- ;' I 2 L t"' ; - J- - . ; . ' ;?X;V-:;y ; , , , - ' , ' - ' j - . "vy ost " ' - v ' - ';.y- nil Si Lifeguard Wade Clinger and Rob Glass apply MAST trousers to "patient" prior to transport to Garfield Memorial Hospital ii i - in Panguitch from Escalante during mock disaster drill. Garfield, Wayne personnel participated. Wayne, Garfield EMTs Train In Helicopter Emergency Rescue ESCALANTE A mock disaster on "The Hogback" portion of Utah Scenic Highway 12 between be-tween Escalante and Boulder provided pro-vided a chance for emergency medical medi-cal units of Garfield and Wayne counties to learn about helicopter medical evacuation in southwestern Utah. The helicopter portion of the evacuation drill was conducted by Lifeguard III, a subsidiary of Classic Clas-sic Helicopters, which provides basic ba-sic life support air evacuation services. ser-vices. They are currently stationed in Page, Ariz. Prior to conducting the drill, Emergency Medical Technicians were instructed on helicopter safety. They were also taught when the use of a helicopter is appropriate and cost effective by Wade Clinger, chief EMT on the unit, and the chief pilot Although the helicopter normally nor-mally carries one pilot and one EMT, two pilots and two EMTs of the Lifeguard crew participated to give those crew members an opportunity to work with local EMTs in order to assure a smooth operation during a genuine emergency. emer-gency. The drill scenario included a car off the edge of "The Hogback," a two-lane section of highway with sharp precipices on both sides. The car was approximately 50 feet down a slick shale slope and another overturned vehicle was still on the highway, simulating the scene of a two-car accident The location was selected because be-cause it had been the actual location of an accident several years ago in which only one person was injured. In Saturday's mock disaster situation, situa-tion, however, there were seven "victims." The most critical patient was trapped under the overturned vehicle which required Garfield County EMTs to use their airbag extrication extrica-tion equipment to remove the mannequin man-nequin serving as the victim. Clinger set his helicopter expertly ex-pertly down on The Hogback section sec-tion of road to pick up the "patient" for transport to Garfield Memorial Hospital in Panguich. Other injuries to the remaining six "victims" were treated by the Garfield and Wayne County ambulance ambu-lance crews. They were "triaged" (separated into injury categories) for transport to the hospital. Because of the long distances required to transport trans-port to Panguitch, the four ambulances ambu-lances from Boulder, Escalante, Bryce Valley and Loa-Bicknell did not transport. Instead, the Pangui tch ambulance simulated delivery of patients to the hospital with the same injuries. Hospital personnel thus had an opportunity for some "hands-on" disaster training, receiving all seven, triaging, and follow through. "Increased traffic on Utah Highway High-way 12 makes the possibility of this scenario highly feasible," said Operations Officer Bob McCul-lough. McCul-lough. During the mock disaster drill, Garfield County sheriffs Chief Deputy John Niemann and Escalante Es-calante Sheriff Posse member Dave Dallison controlled traffic which included many out-of-state vehicles and several tour buses, most traveling travel-ing the section for the first time. Cooperation from neighboring counties and air evacuation support would be essential in an actual similar emergency," McCullough pointed out. Wayne Reynolds, Escalante, served as triage officer deciding which patients should be transported trans-ported first. The patients included Eagle scouts from Escalante and high school students from the Bryce Valley area. Alfred Foster, also an EMT, who operates a wrecker, towed two previously wrecked vehicles to the Hogback and lowered one over the side at the location where he had towed a vehicle from three years earlier. "I'm used to towing them up this steep grade," he quipped, "but I never tried putting them down there before." At the end of the exercise, he did what is natural he towed the vehicle ve-hicle up the hill and back to the Bryce Canyon area. In addition to the 12 EMTs taking tak-ing part in the exercise, it took six EMTs to set it up. Besides Foster, Niemann and Dallison, others from Garfield County selling up the scene were Tracy Dallison, Escalante, Es-calante, Sandrea Francisco, Tropic and Karleen Mclnelly, Bryce. Several Sheriffs Posse members also assisted throughout EMTs from Garfield County taking part in the actual exercise were Mark Nelson and Lynn Mitchell, Boulder; Wayne Reynolds, Barbara Reynolds, Bill Wolverton and James Bowman, Escalante; Patty Lutes and Joe Thompson, Cannonville; Wayne Barker, Henrieville; and Peg Bag-nell Bag-nell and Kim Sopcr, Panguitch. |