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Show f Ambulance team saves lives By GARY LEONARD ls 7 p.m. on a Thursday night. ' Pleasant Grove Ambulance Ration is holding their regular eduled meeting and it looks like 1 short night. 7:18 p.m. an emergency call in a young baby has JPN breathing. Within seconds a . man team and one reporter are je ambulance and on their way. hi Slrens blasting and lihts "'"g the ambulance reaches its 'nation at 7:20 p.m. just two .""jutes after departure, wicer Dave Vickers is already at ith and has revived the infant (v muth to mouth resuscitation. stabilized, the baby is placed e ambulance and transported to Cent" Frk H0SpUal fr Pw!i,C(er Vickers says that this is a resJ example of how the first 'my prgram works. Had the at lh ance crew not already been seVe r!,iStation il would have taken scene minutes longer to get to the first rand Without officer Vickers' ,resp0nse that extra time could csta life. j ambulance association has Hie i!I'0Und for uile a wniIe but rpon pSI addition is tne first tull.ti ' e Program which becomes a me Project on Sept. 1. Headed by Officer Dave Vickers, the first response fills a vital gap in protection for citizens. Under the current system, when an emergency call comes in, the ambulance must first arrive at the ambulance building from their home or work and then respond to the call. This can take up to ten minutes and valuable time is lost in an emergency. Officer Vickers says the first few minutes are the most critical in an emergency. First response would cut down the time it takes to get help on the scene by having one person available at all times to answer calls. This person would be able to get to the accident scene in minutes and administer first aid and stabilize the patient while waiting for the regular ambulance crew to arrive. "Most life-threatening situations can be taken care of by one properly trained and equipped individual," he says. PG's rescue truck will be used for first response and is stocked with complete first aid equipment, including in-cluding oxygen, a power generator and lights for night operation and various tools for extricating victims from wrecked automobiles. Dave Vickers is president of the ambulance association and will be the first full-time employee on the first response team. He will perform per-form other duties for the city during the day but will always have the rescue truck at his immediate disposal. Volunteers will provide coverage at other times. The rest of the ambulance team are all volunteers. The association rules provide for up to 24 members and right now there are 22 including eight women. They are divided into four-man teams and rotate on call, each team taking call for a day. Members are not paid for being on call and are paid a nominal amount only if there is a call for the ambulance. am-bulance. Dave says that the money saved by having volunteers allows them to buy more equipment. Other members are content for the time being with the personal satisfaction they receive from helping others. Julie White, a four-year member of the association and an employee of American Fork Hospital, says she just likes to do this type of work. "It's very rewarding when you are able to help someone," she says, "but it's also extremely frustrating when you arrive at an accident and are unable to do anything." Ann Topham is an RN at American Fork Hospital and a nine-year nine-year veteran of the ambulance team. Her husband is also a member of the team. She said, "I look at it as an extension ex-tension of my career and it's something I have in common with my husband, something we can do together." All members of the ambulance team are enthusiastic about their duties and share a common bond of caring about others. They are also excited about the first response program. Most see it as a great improvement in emergency care and a stepping stone to increased service in the future. Dave Vickers would like to someday see full-time staffing of the ambulance on a 24-hour basis and hopes that it may be a reality in four or five years. The ambulance association is a benefit to the community and until needed it is a service that is often taken for granted. It is, however, a service that cannot be described in a single word. Many words must be used. Words like dedicated, caring, responsive, serious and well-trained are all accurate. The ambulance team is every one of these and more. |
