By EMILY MATCHAR
Cary News (North Carolina)
If you should happen to have an emergency in Cochabamba, Bolivia, just call 132, and the SAR squad will come to your rescue.
They may be using Chevy vans and covered pickup trucks as ambulances, and their equipment consists of hand-me-downs from the United States, but this volunteer EMS squad is all heart.
And they have trained with the best — three members of Cary EMS spent a week working with SAR (which stands for “search and rescue”) members last month as volunteers for Partners of the Americas, a nonprofit organization that links American volunteers of all professions with Latin American communities in need of aid.
Cary EMS Chief Steve Cohen, Assistant Chief Marion Houle, and paramedic Greg Edwards clicked immediately with their south-of-the-equator counterparts.
“EMS people, no matter where you are, have a common bond,” Cohen said.
“We may be 6,000 miles apart, but we do the same thing,” Houle added.
The SAR squad, made entirely of volunteers, has singlehandedly served Cochabamba, a city of more than half a million people about 240 miles from the Bolivian capital of La Paz, since 1988.
The Cary EMTs spent their days at the SAR squad house, teaching lessons on trauma, cardiology and new CPR techniques.
There is no formal training and licensing program for emergency medical workers in Bolivia — the SAR volunteers learn from team leaders who fly to Miami to update their own training.
“They were thirsty for the knowledge,” Edwards said.
The SAR team works without any financial support from the government, using donated ambulances and equipment and going on search-and-rescue missions in their own vehicles.
“They do an amazing job with what they have,” Houle said.
Edwards, who studied Spanish in high school, served as an informal translator and was interviewed four times by Bolivian TV. But since he could not be everywhere at once, the other team members were often left to fend for themselves language-wise. This led to a number of humorous moments, including an incident in which Cohen had to pantomime instructions on delivering a baby for three female SARs.
The SAR squad gave Cary EMS the VIP treatment throughout their stay, ferrying them from hotel to press conference to hospital tour and cooking them Bolivian favorites like empanadas. The Cary team, not used to much home cooking at the squad house, was particularly impressed with the food. “For us, we go to a snack machine,” Cohen said.
Toward the end of the trip, the Bolivians presented Cary EMS with SAR pins, making them honorary squad members.
“All three of us held back tears,” Cohen said. “That was one of my life-changing moments.”
The SAR pins feature a picture of Dumbo the flying elephant, whom the Bolivians call “El Dumbo.” The animated baby elephant from the Disney children’s classic, who learned to fly by flapping his ears, is the team’s mascot, chosen for his ability to overcome the odds and do what everyone said was impossible. Cartoon elephants adorn SAR ambulances and uniforms — there’s even an “El Dumbo” painted on the side of the squad house.
Edwards said that his experience with the SAR team left him feeling reenergized, with a new appreciation of how fortunate he is to ply his trade in a developed nation.
“They’re very interested in learning from America,” he said of the SAR team, “and yet the whole time I was there I felt like I was learning from them.”