Elm Grove Now
ELM GROVE, Wis. — Police and paramedics respond to the report of a shooting in a corporate office.
Two people have been shot and the gunman has barricaded himself inside of a suite.
The SWAT team surrounds the building as unarmed paramedics are forced to stand back and wait.
As the seconds turn to minutes, and minutes turn to hours, injured victims are stuck inside of the building as the standoff continues. Precious time that could be used to aid victims is wasting away because it’s not safe for paramedics to enter.
This is a real-life scenario paramedics across the country could face at any given moment. But with Tactical EMS training, armed paramedics can enter potentially violent settings and save victims instead of waiting for clearance.
Tactical Medics are specially trained and equipped with unique medical, ballistic, and operational gear and learn a special skill set that allows them to join law enforcement in high-threat environments to render immediate medical aid to those who need it.
“One good way to look at TEMS is that we teach life-saving medical interventions to law enforcement personnel, and police tactics to medical personnel so that they can work together as a team,” said John Schindler, an Elm Grove and Flight for Life paramedic who is a Tactical EMS instructor for Waukesha County Technical College.
Intense training
Schindler — who learned about TEMS 15 years ago from Dr. Jon Robinson, medical director for the Elm Grove and Walworth County SWAT, and took courses in TEMS and Basic SWAT at Volk Field — has been teaching a 40-hour TEMS course since 2009.
He was recently given a grant to travel the state and teach the curriculum to emergency personnel in six locations in six months.
He said the primary difference between TEMS and EMS is that Tactic Medics can go into areas with an active threat while regular paramedics don’t have the training or equipment to safely treat and evacuate victims from a high-treat situation.
The TEMS class is a 40-hour course, four 10-hour days and extremely intense with a focus on stress inoculation training.
“A great deal of it is hands-on and trainees need to keep up the momentum,” Schindler said. “We increase the stress level and difficulty as you go.”
The student first learns the medical interventions used in the inner perimeter or “hot zone,” the area with the highest threat.
Students practice those skills under light stress, then navigate and practice those skills on actors as the settings change and stress is elevated.
“The simulation includes helping patients in high-threat environments in the dark, with sirens or music blaring, people screaming at them, and strobe lights to disorient them,” Schindler said.
After successfully providing the correct medical attention, students have to tactically evacuate the patient safely to a casualty collection point for transfer to waiting EMS personnel, who will take the patient to the hospital.
Training to join Elm Grove’s TEMS team also includes a psychiatric test, weapons training and certification, use-of-force training, and defense and arrest tactics.
Training levels
All of Elm Grove’s police officers are emergency medical technicians, meaning they can provide basic emergency services when necessary.
Elm Grove has 16 volunteer EMS or paramedics. A paramedic is a medical professional who handles emergencies outside of the hospital environment by providing emergency treatment and may transport a patient to a hospital, for further assessment or follow-up care.
The EMT-Basic Course in Wisconsin requires 140 hours of instruction, including classroom, practical and emergency room education.
After that, EMTs can continue to receive advanced and intermediate training before training to be a paramedic.
Paramedics trained in Wisconsin must complete at least 1,000 hours of education to receive their licenses.
Elm Grove has five trained Tactic Medics: three volunteer paramedics and police Chief Jim Gage and Assistant Chief Gus Moulas.
Certain situations
The dual role of a tactic medic allows armed paramedics to render aid without needing cover or backup from armed police while eliminating role confusion.
“That could degrade the mission if armed cops had to defend unarmed paramedics,” Schindler said. “With this training, I can defend myself while police focus on the possible threat.”
Tactic medics could prove useful in a range of tragic situations, some seen locally — including the 2005 Sheraton Hotel shooting in Brookfield, the Azana Salon shooting and any violent situation where injured people are barricaded or being held hostage.
“It’s best to have as many people trained as possible,” Schindler said. “We’ll regularly train with police in the future to work together and get to know each other and better understand how we can work together in our roles.”
Les Luder, a firefighter for the city of Superior and paramedic for Sawyer County Ambulance, took TEMS training last June and now fully appreciates its value.
“I’m convinced this training will save lives,” he said. “It teaches medical providers who already have good skills to use those skills in stressful situations.”
Not an easy job
Luder said learning to combine a tactical response with emergency response in high-stress environments was not an easy thing to do.
Individual personnel roles can sometimes make each emergency role seem separate, but the training allows each person to work together to achieve a common goal: safety and rescue while eliminating a threat.
“I felt like I was outside of my comfort zone by combining tactical moves that are second nature to police, and they had to do the same,” he said. “In this class, everyone was together and I think there is something to that.”
Schindler remembered watching a tape of a police recruit and captain. The captain was shot in throat and the recruit, not trained to provide medical help, could only stand and watch while promising that “help was on the way” as the captain collapsed.
He hopes to avoid similar situations through TEMS training.
“Our job is to save lives,” Schindler said. “To stand two or three blocks away if there is a school shooting, for example, and to know people are hurt aor dying, and being forced to stay back would be hard to live with. That’s why we all took this training.”
Funding scarce
Schindler said he and the two volunteer paramedics paid out-of-pocket for their training and medical kits and used vacation time from their paid jobs to travel the state and teach TEMS to departments in Green Bay, Burlington, Wisconsin Rapids, and an upcoming trip to La Crosse, with a grant from the Department of Justice.
“There is interest in TEMS training, but there are difficulties,” he said.
The paramedics need donations for ballistic vests and helmets, and cannot deploy until they have all of the necessary TEMS equipment
Schindler said they need to raise $4,800 and has $1,400 so far.
Village residents who make a tax deductible donation will receive a personal thank you letter.
Donations can be sent to Village Hall, 13600 Juneau Blvd., Attn: Mary Stedni, TEMS.
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