Ebola Transport Ambulance Available from Fla. Company

Nov. 10--MANATEE -- A private Manatee County ambulance company has outfitted one of its units to transmit a patient with Ebola without infecting the emergency medical service technicians or paramedics on board.

The Ebola Transport Ambulance created by West Coast-Southern Medical Services is parked at the company's home office, 934 14th St. W., Bradenton, said the EMS Chief Billy Thayer.

The ambulance was outfitted in part because the company has business partners who travel abroad, including IMG Academies in northwest Bradenton, Thayer said.

"We do have IMG Academies, which seems to have a lot of international travelers, and we have spoken to them since we do a lot of work for them," Thayer said, adding a West Coast-Southern Medical Services ambulance is sent to all IMG Academies sporting events. "We wanted to be proactive and we dedicated a vehicle (to Ebola)."

The patient compartment in the ambulance is covered ceiling to floor with sheets of seamless plastic impervious to fluids, said Carole McGowan, chief executive officer for West Coast-Southern Medical Services.

All supplies carried by the ambulance are put in plastic containers.

"We used guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control to design the Ebola Transport Ambulance as a level of protection for the Ebola virus," Thayer said. "We have also stayed in close touch with the Manatee County Health Department."

The plastic is a heavy polyethylene called Visqueen, McGown said.

"We didn't cut it because we wanted it to be seamless," McGown added.

All equipment in the ambulance is covered in Visqueen.

"We also use disposable equipment wherever possible, except for things such as heart monitors, which we can't dispose," Thayer said. West Coast-Southern Medical Services also has roughly 45 "Level C Bio Suits" with air-purifying respirators, which the ambulance team of one EMS and one paramedic would wear when transporting an Ebola patient.

Thayer said it is possible to drive the ambulance safely with the bio suits on.

"Each of the two-person crew would be wearing the suits," said McGown, whose company has 15 ambulances and a permit to work in Manatee, Sarasota, DeSoto, Highlands and Glades counties.

West Coast-Southern Medical Services mostly provides non-urgent, interfacility transportation, unlike Manatee County public ambulances, which respond to all 911 calls.

A local Ebola patient would be taken to the closet local hospital, McGown said.

Richard Dymond, Herald reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7072 or contact him via Twitter@RichardDymond.

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