Borough EMTs get aircraft training

PALMER -- Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) from various Mat-Su Borough Ambulance teams took to the air last month in training sessions at the Palmer Municipal Airport. The classes focused on patient care inside the aircraft -- a confined space that is often rolling, shaking and noisy.

"It's a whole different environment than even doing patient care in the back of an ambulance," Mel Vostry, Mat-Su EMS co-ordinator, said.

In a real emergency EMTs could find themselves riding inside almost anything, so the course used about eight different aircraft. Civil Air Patrol members provided a deHavilland Beaver and a Cesna 172, while Alaska State Troopers provided two helicopters and air ambulance services provide a chopper and an airplane. With the general aviation aircraft provided by CAP, the students practiced pulling seats and strapping in a back board to create a patient care area inside the aircraft.

Paula Lutz, of Station 1-1 in Sutton said the confined space and turbulence can be limiting for the EMT, but that's what the course was all about.

"It's really cramped and hard to reach around and do things and you're restricted in your movement because you are seat-belted in," Lutz said.

Flying adds an extra layer of preparation and judgment to the job, according to Lutz.

"You want to do most of your patient care before you are in the air. If you need to start an IV or intubate to start an airway, you want to do that beforehand," she said. "When you have turbulence, you don't want to be putting something down someone's throat unless you have to -- it's a pretty big judgment call."

Lutz is an EMT III, and has been involved in borough ambulance service for 10 years. While she has turned accident victims over to aircraft medivac crews in the past, she hasn't flown along with a patient yet. Vostry said the training is important precisely because flying with a patient is uncommon for individual EMTs.

"Probably six or eight times a year we'll be required to get on a helicopter or airplane and ride to a patient or ride with a patient," Vostry said.

But when people get hurt off the road system, borough emergency responders such as Lutz in Sutton or her counterparts in Willow or Talkeetna are often the closest responders. The Mat-Su Borough doesn't have standing ambulance crews, so it's sort of luck-of-the-draw who ends up available to respond when an emergency happens, according to Vostry. That means that as many on-call responders as possible should be trained to work inside aircraft.

"The more people that we can familiarize with aircraft and patient care in the aircraft environment the better off we are," Vostry said.

The course took place over three different days on runway apron space provided by New Horizon Communications. Several agencies and companies provided aircraft and pilots, including troopers, Alaska Fish and Wildlife Protection, CAP, Aeromed International and Lifeguard Alaska. Vostry wanted to specifically thank agencies and companies for providing what amounted to thousands of dollars worth of aircraft and pilot time.

Anyone interested in volunteering for Mat-Su Bough emergency services or becoming an EMT or firefighter can call 373-8800 for information on the next orientation training in their neighborhood.