By Emily Terkell
The Journal News
Copyright 2008 The Journal News
RAMAPO, N.Y. — Jaime Hamill took a moment to gather her belongings and straighten herself out after riding the “Convincer,” a simulated high impact car crash.
“It’s basically trying to tell you that seatbelts are very important,” the 19-year-old New City Ambulance Corps member said of the ride, which demonstrated the impact of a 5-mile-per-hour car crash. “Don’t mess around, no matter how fast you’re going.”
The “Convincer” was one of several demonstrations yesterday at the second annual Emergency Medical Services Community Day at the Rockland County Fire Training Center, which kicked off National EMS Week.
“It germinated with an idea here in the EMS headquarters,” said Lenny Nathan, chairman of the event. “What we want to do is to inform, educate and entertain the community, to learn a little and have a little fun.”
Twenty-minute CPR classes were held throughout the day. Although the classes were not for CPR certification, they were designed to teach people what to do if an adult went into cardiac arrest, said Gwen Bray, the instructor and first lieutenant of the Spring Hill Ambulance Corps.
“This is to teach you what to do to an adult before the ambulance gets there, and what I’m teaching you today, you can teach to anyone,” Bray told the class, gathered around three mannequins.
The participants ranged from middle-aged people, curious about what to do if a loved one collapsed, to families with young children. Each was given a chance to perform compressions and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on the mannequins.
As Bray’s class began to have difficulty pumping air into the mannequins, she used her experience to guide them.
“I can’t tell you how many cardiac arrests I’ve been on,” she said. “It’s a lot easier to do it on a human being than on a mannequin.”
After the instruction, a question and answer period helped to clear up several myths and misconceptions about CPR.
Bray also cautioned the class to follow the American Heart Association’s advice to never perform mouth-to-mouth on strangers, and to call 911 from a land line when possible, as it guarantees a speedier ambulance response time.
Bray said she started with EMS after a personal incident in 1996, and took the EMT course at the Rockland Fire Training Center.
Like Bray, Nathan joined Rockland’s EMS for personal reasons.
“After I retired I sent a donation in and said I was interested in volunteering,” he said. “I saw it as an opportunity to overcome a fear of working with people who are sick or hurt.”
Various fire department and EMT youth corps also participated in yesterday’s exposition.
“I’m actually in the Fire Department, but I like to help some of the younger kids out,” said 17-year-old Steven Neuendorf, who worked on a demonstration teaching extraction and fire safety.
Jamie Rosenblum, the Youth Corps advisor for Ramapo Valley Ambulance Corps encouraged her corps to participate in demonstrations such as oxygen therapy training and to socialize with other youth corps members.
“I started in youth corps when I was 13 years old,” Rosenblum said. “It really means something to me to help the community.”
In addition to demonstrations, including those for child car seat inspections and CPR for dogs and cats, there was an award ceremony recognizing the work of various EMS workers and agencies.
One of the awards was given to Ephraim Tauber, a 17-year-old member of Spring Hill in New Jersey, explained Kim Lippes, EMS coordinator for Rockland County.
Jonathan Eshbach, 12, a member of Haverstraw’s Volunteer Ambulance Corps., also was recognized.
“He’s not yet eligible to ride on the ambulance, but he was there for every meeting and every training,” Lippes said.
Yesterday’s event was dedicated to Bonnie Ames, 21, and Scott Millar, 19, two EMTs who were injured recently when their Regional EMS rig hit a truck parked on Route 59 in West Nyack.
“There are risks you’re taking, but you’ve got to do it,” Neuendorf said, echoing the words of several other young volunteers.