Disaster Teams Offer Special Challenge for First Responders

When tragedy strikes, it's not just local responders who are poised and ready for action. Nationwide, there are highly specialized teams made up of doctors, nurses and EMT's ready to swoop in, providing additional care and support to the sick and injured.

Disaster Medical Assistance Teams, otherwise known as DMATs, deploy to disaster sites with enough supplies and equipment to sustain themselves for about 72 hours while providing medical care.

The teams are supported by federal funds, and fall under the National Disaster Medical System, under the direction of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

"My job is to make sure teams are ready to go," says Tim Walton, Executive Officer of the National Disaster Medical System.

That means making sure team members are trained and equipment is up to par when the teams are called into duty.

Of the 90 NDMS teams across the United States, 50 are DMATs. The other 40 are disaster mortuary and veterinary teams Walton says continued training is key.

He says that since team members usually perform the same work that they would in their everyday lives, they require a different kind of training to be successful in the field. What they need to learn is how to work in what could be a chaotic, high-stress environment.

"What we try to do is literally take people to the field -- where they are sleeping in the tent, working with the equipment they will have to work with at a disaster site."

"Not training them in clinical aspects," he says, but "training them to be functional in a disaster area -- setting up tents, working in an austere environment -- that's not what they are used to doing on a daily basis."

Lloyd Parker, Assistant Chief for Lake Sumter EMS in Mount Dora, Fla., and the Team Commander of FL-6 DMAT has been a part of the DMAT program since before it was fully organized program.

"At that time, we had to petition the National Disaster Medical System, recruit personnel, build our own cache of equipment and supplies," he says.

Indeed, when the teams were first organized they were 100 percent volunteer, and members had to find ways to finance their own equipment. That meant that when it was time for one team to head back home from a deployment, they took their things home with them. It was up to their replacement to restock the treatment site with their own things.

Now, the government is responsible for standardized caches equipment, and most of it is maintained at centralized locations around the country. Additionally, team members are now classified as special intermittent when they are activated. That means their jobs are protected when they are called away to serve.

Parker says he first became aware of the existence of DMATs while he was deployed as an EMS Strike Team Leader after Hurricane Andrew hit South Florida. He and his crew worked with the NC-1 DMAT. He helped organize Orlando’s team 12 years ago.

Parker said his most satisfying experience as a member of a DMAT came in 2005, after Hurricane Katrina hit.

"It was really bad there," he says. "Many people were evacuated and they were in dire need of primary and emergency care."

He said that he was sent to Kiln, Miss., where the two closest hospitals had sustained serious damage in the storm. He estimates that they treated as many as 140 people a day at the peak of their activity.

"From the standpoint of the work that we did, it was just a rewarding experience," he said. "The people were wonderful people and it was just a very, very good deployment."

FDNY Lieutenant John Raftery says he also had a special experience while deployed in Louisiana with his New York team just after Katrina hit.

Raftery has been with his team since 2002, and has been with the FDNY for 16 years. "That was probably one of the most fulfilling missions that I've ever had," he said.

That's because he had the opportunity to connect with patients in a way that he does not usually during his bustling New York City runs. "For six weeks I saw the same people every day."

Raftery said his time spent with the Metro New York 2 team gives him added skills as a first responder.

"It gives me insight into other aspects of allied health," he says, "and it definitely has helped my interaction as a supervisor. Working with the DMAT and having a multitude of players involved...you get this perspective that, being a medic in the south Bronx, you just wouldn't see day to day."

Click here to learn more about Disaster Medical Assistance Teams, and here if you are interested in becoming involved.