Does Your County Have a Constitutionalist Sheriff!

[Janet Harrington]

Unless things have changed and Elk County's Enhanced 911 is more equipped then I think it is, the 911 addresses that come up in the sheriff's office do not have each resident's GPS readings.  We used to have GPS in each vehicle so that when we arrived at the scene we could give the helicopter the latitude and longitude readings, so that they could find the place.  All 911 gives is your 911 address.

If emergency personnel is not familiar with the area, then I can see where it would take a little time to get to Sarah's house.  Of course, I don't know the reason it took 45 minutes for EMS to arrive, but there are all kinds of factors that could have been involved.

Severy does house an ambulance that has volunteers.  Tom Eubank is the only paramedic and the other volunteers are EMTs.  I believe that Tom works in Eureka most of the time.  I don't know how Severy schedules their volunteers, so I don't know if there is anyone available 24/7 to take that ambulance out.

It is not a law for a paramedic to be on an ambulance unless you are a Type I service which Elk County was not when I was director.  Elk County has 2 paramedics working, so I believe that there is a paramedic on 99% of the runs in Elk County.

It is a sad thing when families are in dire need of medical help and the county cannot provide it all the time and as quickly as it needs to be provided.  I do not know how many of the current deputies are EMT's.  I know Hanks is, but I don't know about anyone else.  About the only thing a deputy that is not an EMT can do is drive the ambulance, but I believe that there has to be 2 certified people in the back if you allow that deputy to drive.

I am just trying to answer some questions and give you all some idea about how some of the EMS stuff works in Elk County, but remember, I haven't been involved since January, 2005.  I gave up my EMT certification in 2005 after being an EMT for 26 years.