By Jen Lynds
Bangor Daily News
Copyright 2008 Bangor Daily News
PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — It has been more than two years since a child’s life was lost and a cause was found.
Now, an organization that was launched to enhance emergency care for critically injured children after the death of a 5-year-old Bridgewater girl has improved the lives of countless young people throughout the region.
That effort was bolstered late last week when officials from the Megan Bradstreet Fund presented all four hospitals and four area ambulance services in Aroostook County with tools to help them care for their youngest patients.
The ceremony took place at Northern Maine Community College.
The Megan Bradstreet Fund honors Megan Bradstreet, who died as a result of injuries she suffered when she was hit by a car near the family’s home on U.S. Route 1 in Bridgewater in July 2005.
Paramedics could not take her to the hospital in Bangor where she needed to go because the area did not have a trained pediatric critical care transport team. A special team drove from Bangor to Aroostook County to take the girl back to the Bangor hospital, causing a several-hour delay in advanced care.
Megan’s mother, Wendy Bradstreet, joined with family, friends and area emergency medical technicians to create the Megan Bradstreet Fund soon after her daughter’s death. The organization works to ensure that other critically injured County children have more immediate access to an expert pediatric transport crew.
The materials donated through Megan’s Fund last week included eight drills with the EZ-IO device. The devices are used for emergency access to give fluids and medications when intravenous applications cannot be quickly or easily established
The EZ-IO drills were presented to representatives from Northern Maine Medical Center in Fort Kent, Cary Medical Center in Caribou, The Aroostook Medical Center in Presque Isle and Houlton Regional Hospital. Four emergency response agencies - the Caribou Fire and Ambulance Department, the Ashland Ambulance Department, Fort Kent-based Ambulance Services Inc., and Presque Isle-based Crown Air - also received the equipment.
Daryl Boucher, program coordinator for NMCC’s emergency medical services program, said in a written statement that the devices would benefit both area children and emergency workers.
“Because the volume of pediatric patients encountered is low, and because this isn’t a state-mandated piece of equipment, many ambulance services simply could not budget or afford to purchase these devices,” he said. “From a provider standpoint, nothing is more frustrating than needing IV access to give medication in an emergency situation, and not being able to start one. This device will assure that most emergency providers in Aroostook County now have this ability.”
The equipment purchase was made possible through money raised by the Presque Isle Rotary Club during its annual golf tournament last September.
Club President Joe Clukey and fellow Rotarians joined Wendy Bradstreet in presenting the medical tools to representatives of the organizations at NMCC.
“Although there are some services that have some of the equipment, not all emergency vehicles are equipped with pediatric equipment,” said Wendy Bradstreet. “Therefore, if an ambulance is out on call for one patient and a call comes in for a pediatric case, there is no guarantee that the vehicle left to make the pediatric call will be the one equipped with the essentials.”
Megan’s Fund also purchased an EZ-IO trainer unit and donated it to NMCC for training sessions on using the equipment.
In addition to the EZ-IO drills and related supplies, other pediatric emergency supplies were presented to several County emergency responders as part of the Megan’s Fund purchase.
Providers will be trained on how to use the equipment in the next few weeks throughout the County, according to Boucher.