Does Your County Have a Constitutionalist Sheriff!

[Wilma]

Steve, if you can drive from Sarah's house to Howard in 12 minutes, you are risking never getting here.  Did you take into consideration the time it takes for the emts to get to the ambulance barn, get the ambulance out, ascertain the location (which in this case is not easy to find) and the best route to get there?  Or consider the possibility that not enough emts were immediately available to make the run?  Few of the law enforcement, maybe not any of them, know that area well enough to find their way without hesitation.  If one ambulance was already out, there is every possibility that not enough qualified personnel was available to immediately respond to another call.

A few years back, my neighbor here in Howard at that time, had a massive heart attack.  One ambulance was out, a law enforcement officer brought the other ambulance while another officer came in another vehicle.  They were in a predicament because if the heart patient needed to be transported, they didn't have enough qualified personnel for the ride.  As it turned out, the other ambulance got back in time, then was immediately sent out to an accident.  My LPN daughter was prepared to do whatever was required.  An ambulance from Eureka had been requested for the accident and were on their way, so they worked the accident while Howard took care of the heart patient.  He had the best care possible, but it was too late even when the ambulance was called.  You can't fault the emergency services for the inconvenience of the area.

[Diane Amberg]

Steve, we are a  big volunteer fire company. We now have some paid EMTs for day time but the firefighters are all volunteer as are all the line officers and the rest of us EMTs are all volunteer. We take shifts so all hours are covered. Rarely do we ever have to wait for someone to go the the station to get the ambulance. We'd never make our four minute window that way. If there is a problem we can tone out our pagers for more people.  Occasionally I've gone directly to the scene if I was close by. I do understand the problems of having so few people to help in rural areas. The other advantage we have have are the helicopters.

[srkruzich]

Steve, if you can drive from Sarah's house to Howard in 12 minutes, you are risking never getting here.  Did you take into consideration the time it takes for the emts to get to the ambulance barn, get the ambulance out, ascertain the location (which in this case is not easy to find) and the best route to get there?  Or consider the possibility that not enough emts were immediately available to make the run?  Few of the law enforcement, maybe not any of them, know that area well enough to find their way without hesitation.  If one ambulance was already out, there is every possibility that not enough qualified personnel was available to immediately respond to another call.

I never said they didn't do what they could or even a bad job. I only said it took over 45 min.  That quite frankly no matter what is not an acceptable time for any EMT.   I am just saying i am better off getting there myself and not waiting. 

A few years back, my neighbor here in Howard at that time, had a massive heart attack.  One ambulance was out, a law enforcement officer brought the other ambulance while another officer came in another vehicle.  They were in a predicament because if the heart patient needed to be transported, they didn't have enough qualified personnel for the ride.  As it turned out, the other ambulance got back in time, then was immediately sent out to an accident.  My LPN daughter was prepared to do whatever was required.  An ambulance from Eureka had been requested for the accident and were on their way, so they worked the accident while Howard took care of the heart patient.  He had the best care possible, but it was too late even when the ambulance was called.  You can't fault the emergency services for the inconvenience of the area.

Quite frankly whats the point of having them if they cannot respond to the emergency.  That is the problem.  I got to thinking about what you said about them finding the place. That is not even a excuse today anymore. We have GPS available.  WHy don't they have GPS in the vehicles.  We pay good money to have the 911 service, it is tied into our addys and GPS locations, there is no reason why someone has to hunt and search a map to find the place. 

[srkruzich]

Steve, we are a  big volunteer fire company. We now have some paid EMTs for day time but the firefighters are all volunteer as are all the line officers and the rest of us EMTs are all volunteer. We take shifts so all hours are covered. Rarely do we ever have to wait for someone to go the the station to get the ambulance. We'd never make our four minute window that way. If there is a problem we can tone out our pagers for more people.  Occasionally I've gone directly to the scene if I was close by. I do understand the problems of having so few people to help in rural areas. The other advantage we have have are the helicopters.

I wondered why they didn't send a helo when we called in a non-repsonsive infant call.  That did not make sense to me to send out a ambulance.  They knew she was in serious trouble if i am having to do cpr.  I don't know. But i can't second guess anymore, shes gone and it won't make a bit of difference.

Anyway  Again I have not said the EMT's or lawenforcement weren't good or anything like that, I just am saying the time frame to respond is absolutely unacceptable.   Its just that in embers case it was way too long, in my case it would be way too long if i had an attack and if someone had a stroke, there goes that magic hour to get something done.

[Diane Amberg]

Steve, there is just nothing worse that what happened to that dear child but I don't know how it can be fixed when there are so few people .

[srkruzich]

Steve, there is just nothing worse that what happened to that dear child but I don't know how it can be fixed when there are so few people .

Like i said i am not blaming the EMTs or the sherriff.  I think the county is woefully inadequate in the setup.   

[Diane Amberg]

Is there anyway it could be improved that would be acceptable to people out there?

[srkruzich]

Is there anyway it could be improved that would be acceptable to people out there?

You know i have no idea other than having a ambulance based in each town in the county.  That would improve things.  One here, one in severy, one in howard and moline and longton.  Doesn't have to be going 24 x7, just available for emt's to respond from those locations.  If each town has firefighters, then they can surely have emt's too.  And with what they ambulances charge to transport, it wouldn't take long to pay off the things.   700 dollar transport fee for a 50 mile transport.

[srkruzich]

I  do know one thing everyone should have in their homes in case of emergency.  That is one of the ventillators they use to do cpr with the fface mask and baloon.  I don't know if anyone realizes but 45 min of breathing for someone even a infant is exhausting.  And with a baby you have to be very careful not to breath full breaths. 

[Wilma]

About the only way that it could be improved would be to have enough money to hire enough people and have enough ambulances to have more than two available.  Our paramedics are highly qualified, but it is difficult to keep qualified emts in this county when they can go somewhere else for more money.  I think that all the law enforcement officers are qualified emts, also, unless things have changed.  Part of the problem is personnel that is not familiar with our county.  As in Sarah's case, giving directions to find her takes a little thought.  You either have to take a winding road going west of town or go north on 400 to Rock Road, then west to Rd. 9, then south.  There is no direct east-west road that comes close to her and no north-south road that goes directly to her.  On the winding road, you have to know where to turn, as the road that goes west from Howard does not connect with Rd. 9.  If you take Rock Road west to Rd. 9, you find another dilemma.  When you reach Rd. 9, it goes north, but not south anywhere you can see.  You have to go on west across a bridge, take a left curve that curves back to the east a bit and you are on Rd. 9.  This isn't unique in Elk County.  You can run into roads like this anywhere.  You just have to be familiar with every bit of the county to be able to quickly find your destination.

Steve, are you talking about volunteer paramedics and emts?  I think state regs require a paramedic on every run.


Marcia, what is the ambulance situation in Severy, now?  They used to have one stationed there, I thought.  How did that work?