By Kevin Buey
Deming Headlight
DEMING, NM — Emergency Medical Technicians at the Deming Fire Department have new equipment and training to assist patients with cardiac problems.
The department this week has taken delivery of two Advanced Life Support Cardiac Monitors. The 20-pound, 12-lead monitors were purchased through two New Mexico Department of Health grants, for $30,000 total. They normally sell for $17,000 each, said battalion chief Edgar Davalos.
“These are real good for these medics,” Davalos said of five DFD firefighters/medics who are completing a class through Doña Ana Community College.
The monitor, said Rich Golie, is a defibrillator, used to shock the heart and restore normal heart rate of a person in cardiac arrest, measure blood pressure and oxygen statistics.
“We’ll be able to provide life support 24/7,” said Davalos, “improve the quality of care.”
Golie, Kevin Hensley, Raul Mercado, Delbert Rivera and Robert Acosta are completing the program at Doña Ana Community College, a pilot program in which they attended fulltime while also working full schedules at the fire department.
The department has five ambulances. There are two monitors and Davalos said the department will get more through additional grants.
Gwenda McClure, chief nursing official; Dr. George Williams, emergency room director, Dr. Nikhal Mehta, medical director of Mimbres Memorial Hospital Nursing Home, Deming mayor Andres Silva and state Rep. Dona Irwin, D-Luna, were instrumental in the department receiving the grant, Davalos said.
The monitors transmit results of various tests to an emergency room as medics attend a patient in the field.