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This Week in EMS: A Recap for Feb. 3 - 9, 2007
A reminder to the EMS community: applications are due in one week, on Feb. 16, for positions on the new national advisory committee on EMS.
As EMSResponder.com reported in December, (National EMS Advisory Committee Established) the new council will make recommendations to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration's Office of EMS.
The 26-member panel will be comprised of volunteer and career providers, trauma surgeons, state EMS directors, educators, dispatchers, highway safety officials and consumers, and will address a multitude of issues including needs assessment, planning, data collection, training and education.
The document announcing this new committee in the Federal Register states that weight will be given to a variety of factors including geographical distribution, gender, minority status, organization, and expertise. Nearly 200 applications had already been submitted as of this week.
To read the full document, including application instructions, click here for the online text or here for the pdf.
The top industry news this week included several tragedies.
The international search and rescue community is mourning the loss of one of its top pioneers. Jim Segerstrom, Advanced Rescue Technology editorial advisory board member and director of Special Rescue Services Group of Sonora, Calif., died of a massive stroke on Feb. 5 at the University of California San Francisco Medical Center.
Segerstrom was instrumental in the development of swiftwater rescue education and training, and was a champion of safety, technical rescue training and preparedness for fire-rescue and SAR personnel worldwide.
Jim's contributions to ART included the popular "Rescue Roundup" column, as well as the series of articles entitled Rope Rescue for Dummies. EMS Magazine Associate Publisher/Editor Nancy Perry, who also served as the editor of ART from 1997 to 2006, notes that Jim's passion for water rescue was unsurpassed. "He had such conviction in what he was doing," she says. "He leaves a void that will never be filled."
To read more about Jim, visit the full article: Search and Rescue Community Mourns Pioneer.
Also this week, a paramedic, a nurse and a pilot were killed in a medical plane crash in Montana. The twin-engine plane was a Mercy Flight with Benefis Healthcare, and was on its way to transport a patient when it crashed in a rural area. Members of the Gallatin County Search and Rescue team and Central Valley Fire Department found the wreckage while is was still burning, but rescue efforts were hampered by the location of the crash site.
Click here to read the full article: Crew Killed in Montana Medical Plane Crash.
In yet another loss to the EMS community this week, a South Carolina paramedic and EMS instructor was killed when he crashed while en route to volunteer with Aiken Rescue. Investigators were looking at the possibility that medical issues may have contributed to the crash. Read more at: South Carolina Paramedic Killed in Crash.
The top emergency medical news this week was the data coming out of Wisconsin indicating that cardiocerebral resuscitation, or CCR, has tripled survival rates for local cardiac arrest patients compared to standard CPR.
CCR was introduced in Wisconsin's Rock and Walworth counties in 2004. It is relatively new and used in only a few places in the United States, so there is no broad statistical data available. However, Wisconsin health officials say they are amazed at their results.
CCR involves no mouth-to-mouth rescue breathing, as in CPR, and relies on continuous chest compressions at a rate of 100 per minute to move the stored oxygen in the blood of cardiac arrest patients to vital parts of the body. However, patients suffering from respiratory arrest will have used up the oxygen in their blood and still require rescue breathing from traditional CPR.
To read more about CCR and the experience in Wisconsin, visit Data: CCR Triples Survival Chances Over CPR. This will certainly be a topic to watch as more data becomes available.
Finally, remember that EMS Magazine is currently looking for your input. To submit nominations for the 22nd Annual EMT/Paramedic of the Year Award, sponsored by Braun Industries and ZOLL Medical.Corporation, please visit www.emsresponder.com/paramedic. And, to submit a website for consideration in this year's annual website review, please e-mail your suggestion to website editor Heather Caspi at Heather.Caspi@cygnusb2b.com.
Other top headlines on EMSResponder.com this week:
