`Brian Saved Futures`: Medic`s Crash Death Spurs New Fatigue Policy at Neighboring Agency

     There are two kinds of EMS funerals, a wise man once observed. One comes when a lifetime caregiver passes quietly in old age after a long and fruitful career of touching lives and helping those in need. Those, he noted, are sad but celebratory-and all too rare. The other occurs when a talented provider is cut down prematurely by some cruel accident or other twist of fate. Those are nothing but tragic-and they're all too common.

     Brian Gould was one of the latter. The 42-year-old Colorado medic died a week before Thanksgiving when, on his way home from an overnight shift, his northbound pickup truck crossed the center line on U.S. 287 and struck a southbound semi head-on.

     Gould had spent 17 years with the Poudre Valley Hospital Ambulance Service in Fort Collins. He served with a local volunteer fire department. He was author of the radio scanner guide ScanColorado and founder of the incident-paging network Mountain News Net, both popular resources. And most of all he was, his peers recalled, a top-flight EMS provider.

     "He saved many lives," Greg Niswender, chief of the Glacier View Fire Protection District, where Gould served as assistant chief, told mourners at a memorial service, "but I would submit that Brian saved futures."

     "Good medicine was his gift," added colleague Claire Hawks.

     Gould's wife of 10 years, Jennifer Stackler-Gould, is also a paramedic with Poudre Valley. Unaware the victim in the Nov. 16 accident was her husband, she was part of the first EMS crew sent to the scene. As she arrived, an on-scene firefighter and her partner, who recognized Gould's truck, helped divert her.

     The official cause of the accident had yet to be determined as this was written, but the Colorado State Patrol had ruled out alcohol, drugs and weather. That left some in the state EMS community, given the time of the crash, wondering about simple fatigue. But Gould had worked a relatively quiet 12-hour shift, his supervisor said, rather than the kind of busy 24-hour shift that can cause providers to sacrifice sleep.

     Other possible causes could involve a medical or mechanical problem or driver distraction. Nonetheless, at least one other state agency moved quickly in the wake of the crash to address potential fatigue risks among its employees. Officials with Platte Valley Ambulance, roughly an hour away in suburban Denver, instituted two new policies:

• Any crew feeling fatigued can take themselves out of service, and their ambulance will be staffed by supervisors.
• If a crew gets less than four hours of uninterrupted sleep during a 24-hour shift, colleagues will take them and their vehicles home after work.

     "If you think about it, when somebody's sick, they don't need to ask anybody's advice about taking themselves out of service," says Thom Dick, Platte Valley's quality care coordinator. "So it's a pretty small leap to letting them do that when they're exhausted. You go to a few of these funerals, and it's not a hard decision to make."

     The Poudre Valley system has moved away from 24-hour shifts for similar reasons.

     Gould will be remembered with an endowment fund, set up through the Poudre Valley Hospital Foundation, to provide scholarship assistance to EMTs who want to attend paramedic school. Donations for the fund can go to the PVH Foundation, c/o Poudre Valley Hospital, 1024 S. Lemay Ave., Fort Collins, CO 80524. Donors are asked to note on their checks that their donations are for the Brian Gould Endowment Fund. For more information, call 970/495-7400. Donations in Gould's name can also be made to Ahimsa Ranch Animal Rescue, c/o Lauren Tipton, 3264 WCR 72, Fort Collins, CO 80524. For more information: 970/214-5201, www.ahimsaranch.org.