By Amy Nixon
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Members of the Big Bend Vernon Fire Department presented the fire board with two medical scenarios to demonstrate the difference between basic EMT care and paramedic care at the Aug. 17 fire board meeting. Although all of the board members stayed to hear the first presentation on EMT care, two board members got up and walked out before the second presentation.
Patrick Hays, Deputy Chief in charge of EMS for the BBV Fire Department, led the presentation, in which one scenario of a male patient with chest pain and shortness of breath, and who stops breathing and loses a pulse, was handled in two different ways. In the fist presentation, the patient received EMT basic level care without a paramedic. In the second presentation, the patient received care from an EMT basic, an intermediate IV tech and a paramedic.
“People around the whole country have the impression that there are ambulance drivers and there are paramedics,” he said. “We wanted to show the different levels of EMS care.”
During the first presentation, EMTs showed up to the scenario and took the patient’s vital signs, put him on oxygen, started CPR and transported the patient to the hospital.
Hays explained that if a patient has their own nitroglycerin, the EMT can assist the patient with it, but they cannot treat the patient with nitro. An EMT is also not authorized to give out any medications accept for aspirin, he said.
All of the fire board members listened to the presentation, but when it came time to present the paramedic scenario, Hays said board members Sue Fischer and Ellen Cole got up and walked out of the room. They completely left the building and stood outside until the presentation was done, he said. The two then returned to the meeting room once the presentation was complete. Hays said after the meeting he overheard the two tell one of the paramedics that it was nothing personal but that they “didn’t get paid for this.”
Hays said that the eight members on the fire board represent the 9,500 residents covered by the department and felt they owed it to the residents of the community to hear both presentations.
“To me, this was the most amount of disrespect I have ever felt in my life,” he said. “It showed me they feel it’s not important to be educated about the fire department they are responsible for and that they don’t want to know what we do.”
Fire Board President Carol Shae said she was very pleased with the department’s presentation and learned a lot about paramedics that she never knew.
“I as not aware they were going to do that (leave the meeting) and I consider it very unprofessional,” she said.
What they missed
Fischer and Cole, who did not return the Mukwonago Chief’s request for comment, missed the department’s second presentation, in which the same patient is hooked up to a monitor, where his heart rhythm is read. The paramedics are able to start an IV, treat the patient with nitroglycerin and perform an EKG which is then sent directly to Waukesha Memorial so that once the patient arrives, they can be immediately transferred to the catheterization (CATH) lab. Once the patient stops breathing, the paramedics can give him drugs, shock him and bring him back into a slow heart rhythm before bring his heart rate back up.
Because paramedics are able to administer drugs and perform other medical procedures, they do not have to spend the entire ride to the hospital, standing up performing CPR, which can be very dangerous.
Hays also introduced Patty Preuss, a patient who lives in the Town of Vernon and experienced first hand paramedic treatment. Preuss was having a heart attack and paramedics performed an EKG, (a test that measures the electrical activity of the heartbeat), sent it to the hospital, and she was transported immediately to the CATH lab once she got to the hospital.
“From what my doctor said, I would not be here talking to you without them,” she said in a phone interview. “They treated me so fast that there wasn’t a lot of damage done to my heart.”
Budget concerns
Hays explained that 70 percent of the department’s calls are EMS calls, which accounts for the majority of the budget.
“I don’t believe they are looking to cut it,” said Hays. “Our goal was just to educate the board and show them the differences, so at these budget meetings, they can see and know what the difference is.”
Copyright 2009 Journal Sentinel Inc.