By ELAINE D’AURIZIO
The Record (Bergen County, NJ)
Copyright 2006 North Jersey Media Group Inc.,
All Rights Reserved
Call it life-saving on two wheels. And while it can’t be called new, medics pedaling to emergency calls on bicycles is becoming more popular.
The latest to join this nationwide trend is the Pompton Lakes/Riverdale First Aid Squad, which recently purchased two mountain bikes for their emergency medical technicians — EMTs.
Figures on how many municipalities boast bike EMS teams are hard to come by. Locally, we were able to find teams in Lincoln Park and Pequannock, another in Summit, and a paramedic — there are differences between EMTs and paramedics — bike team from Holy Name Hospital in Teaneck.
Bergen County police said they didn’t know of any other bike medics in that county. Those municipalities that do have them often loan them to towns that do not, especially when a crowd event is being held.
The bikes are not a substitute for roaring out on four-wheel rigs, mind you. But in certain circumstances, less — or two — is better than four.
Consider how much easier — and faster — it is for a two-wheeler than an ambulance to get through crowds, parades, difficult terrain and fenced-in areas.
“When we do our larger events, such as Pompton Lakes Day next month, there’s a lot of people in a small area,” said Shaun Phillippe, a squad member for two years of the Pompton Lakes/Riverdale First Aid Squad and the one who suggested that the borough acquire the bikes.
Getting an ambulance through a big crowd can take seven minutes or longer, he said.
“When you have a bike in that general area, you cut the time in half,” Phillippe said. “And when someone is having a heart attack, seconds mean everything.”
That’s why paramedics at Holy Name Hospital started using mountain bikes six years ago.
Now they’re in demand all over the state, from Liberty State Park to Atlantic City.
“Last year we did about 70 events,” said Steve Cicala, director of EMS at Holy Name Hospital. “We’re constantly requested by neighboring towns for fireworks, street fairs, breast cancer walks, scouting jamborees, on golf courses. ...”
The team now has eight bikes, two scooters — bigger than mo-peds, but smaller than motorcycles — and a “gator” or golf cart-type vehicle that they have used to transport patients to an ambulance.
“We’ve had a lot of off-road incidents, such as last year when we responded at a breast cancer walk to a person with chest pains, another who was injured by a horse and someone in a hilly terrain who had been stung by a bee,” Cicala said. The paramedics usually work at a function — being there in case they are needed.
The bikes carry basic first aid and airway equipment, a defibrillator and oxygen in bags in back of bikes. Holy Name’s first call on bikes was to someone suffering a seizure.
And they once revived a diabetic golfer when his blood sugar plummeted dangerously at the far end of a golf course.
The bikes are usually mountain bikes.
“They’re the most practical for this application because they’re strong, they’re sturdy, they can carry equipment and can maneuver around obstacles in a way other bikes can’t. They are engineered to go up stairs, curbs, a rough pavement or field, a golf course, gravel areas, dirt roads or bridges,” said Maureen Becker, executive director of the International Police Mountain Bike Association, a non-profit organization whose mission is to promote the use of bikes for public safety. Included are police, EMS and security.
The two bikes for the Pompton Lakes team were purchased from $3,000 donated by Tilcon, an excavating company in Pompton Lakes.
“It’s enough to get us two bikes for a total $1,500 and the other $1,500 was used to outfit them with all the needed equipment,” Phillippe said.
“We carry things that help us do cardiopulmonary resuscitation ... stuff you use being first on the scene,” said Phillippe, a sophomore studying criminal justice at Morris Community College.
The Lincoln Park EMS bike team has four bikes and six to eight members trained in using the mountain bikes. And Pequannock has about 10 members and two bikes.
Becker said the trend for police to use bikes started in the 1980s when medics walked during parades “because it was so congested.”
“It was hard to get ambulances through,” she said. “They had to crawl through people.”
Medics used bikes in the 1990s after seeing more police use them for maneuverability, she said.
“We’re having a training course so everyone knows the limits of a bike, what it can do,” said Phillippe, 19.
The bikes have other benefits besides maneuverability, say those who have used them awhile.
For example, they bring the medics closer to the folks they serve. The public gets to know a medic’s name and that he or she is there to give them immediate attention.
Another bonus: The exercise you get pedaling instead of sitting behind the wheel of a rig.
“In terms of morale, you can get a boost if you enjoy getting personal interaction with people and knowing that, when you are out there riding around, not only are you are getting exercise — you could save somebody’s life,” Becker said.
Fast facts
* Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) receive a minimum of 120 hours of training and perform basic life-support functions, including CPR, emergency childbirth, bandaging wounds, administering oxygen and more.
* You must be an EMT before you can become a paramedic. Yet paramedics are sometimes called EMTs.
* Paramedics are paid and generally participate in a two-year, full-time program of classroom and clinical instruction. Paramedic programs in New Jersey are hospital-based.
* A paramedic may administer life-saving medications, perform advanced airway breathing techniques, provide IV therapy, take and interpret EKGs and more.