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| navigate: home: magazine: fall 2003: article | |
| Confronting Terrorism Hershey Medical Center trains emergency personnel By Melissa W. Kaye | ||||||
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The small, dank area is noisy and cold. A group of people move from one space to the next, weaving along through tight spots in dingy conditions. Deep in that confined dark chamber, the strong wind outside can still be heard. These seemingly trapped individuals are actually an assemblage of emergency room physicians and paramedics participating in a disaster-area scenario as a part of the Urban Search and Rescue Medical Specialist training program that took place at the Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center this spring. The tight space is actually the inside of a vault, and the noises and windy conditions are simulated with generators. The 60-hour program is designed to train and certify medical personnel to work within the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) National Urban Search and Rescue Response System. The Penn State Hershey Medical Center worked in conjunction with Harrisburg Community College’s Public Safety Training Center to provide additional space and instructors for the course. The windy room scenario and others like it are meant to provide participants with a hands-on learning environment, Mike Kurtz, the course’s lead instructor, said. “We are proud of Mike’s leadership in this important program and pleased to be able to assist in this training effort,” Dr. Luanne Thorndyke, associate dean for Professional Development, said. Kurtz is a Life Lion paramedic for the Penn State Hershey Medical Center and a member of the Pennsylvania Task Force One team, one of 28 FEMA teams around the country, built to respond to large-scale disasters. The Pennsylvania task force has been deployed twice nationally—in September 1999 to North Carolina for Hurricane Floyd and on September 11, 2001, to the World Trade Center. It also went to the rubble of a parking garage collapse in State College, Pa., in the summer of 2002. When deployed, the task force goes out with a team of 72; the actual roster currently consists of 200. In case of sickness or vacations, each task force position has three individuals who can cover for one another. Once a person goes through the Urban Search and Rescue Medical Specialist training program, they are eligible to be on the task force. During the course, students rotated through various stations to document many of the medical emergencies they would be likely to see in a disaster that results in individuals trapped in austere environments. In the scenario “48 Hours,” doctors had to take care of a patient in a confined space for a prolonged period of time. “They have to consider the patient’s day-to-day health needs, as well as ongoing medical care problems,” Kurtz said. He explained that many of the physicians are used to what he called the “calm and quiet” emergency room, where everything is set up for them. “It’s a wake-up call for emergency room doctors to see the different disaster environments. They need to be trained and geared and ready to go. Many feel that it’s not if they will respond to a disaster, but when.” Paramedic Chris Kiskeravage said the class was one of the best training courses he has attended since his career began in 1991. “In the everyday world, we pick up patients, take them to the hospital and return back into service in an hour or less,” he added. “This program was great in the sense that it focused on the extended care needs of a patient.” The course also provided an introduction to veterinary medicine so that personnel will be able to provide basic emergency care to task force canines that may become injured during search and rescue operations. Four canines, plus their handlers, are deployed in a task force response; the dogs sometimes need physicians for problems ranging from emotional stress to damaged limbs. Instructors tacked on an additional 20 hours of curriculum to the course designed by the government, going “above and beyond” the required material, Kurtz said. Much of the added time was spent at Penn State Hershey Medical Center’s simulation lab, with a “reality mannequin.” The mannequin can sense medication and oxygen intake, reacting to an incorrect administration. Class member Gregory R. Frailey, director of Susquehanna Health System’s Prehospital Services in Williamsport, Pa., called the overall course “excellent.” “I feel it gave the paramedics a chance to further their knowledge and skill levels, along with increasing the all-important paramedic-physician relationship,” Frailey said. | |||||
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