Emergency responders honored this week

Ambulance workers put in grueling hours and put up with unpleasant sights on a daily basis. But it?s all worth it when they see their neighbors recover from an accident or rebound from a fall. This week is Emergency Medical Services Week and is a time to recognize those who provide life-saving care. Michael McCandless and Pat Curl have done just that since the 1970s and now they both work for the Washington County Ambulance Service.

Curl volunteered with the Wellman Ambulance Service for 13 years. He has worked at the Washington Ambulance Service since 2005. McCandless has worked for the Washington Ambulance Service for nearly four decades.

?I started here 36 years ago, and no, we were not using horses,? said McCandless.

McCandless joined the military after high school and that is where he developed an interest in health care.

?I did some medical and mechanical stuff, and I worked on the electrical systems of trucks,? he said.

McCandless said that, prior to graduation, he had no aspirations of a career in emergency services.

?I just knew I didn?t want to go to school,? he said. ?I was interested in cars and girls. When I was a senior in high school, I got this manila envelope with a letter inside that said ?Congratulations, you?ve been drafted.? I had to report for basic training a couple of weeks after I graduated.?

When he entered the military, the 134

^th

company was a tank unit. When he returned to the States, it changed to a medical unit. He joined the 134

^th

as a medical non-commissioned officer.

Curl is from Wellman. Many years ago, funeral homes provided ambulance service. That changed in the 1970s, when funeral homes dropped the practice for insurance reasons. That was when the Wellman Ambulance Service was born, which Curl volunteered for.

McCandless said much of the equipment in the early days of ambulances was adopted from funeral homes. The ambulances themselves were modified hearses.

?The basics of the job haven?t changed that much,? said McCandless. ?We still get people to the hospital and we treat them.?

McCandless has noticed a few striking changes to the job in the equipment the staff uses, which precipitated a change in personnel. He said the old equipment required the ambulance staff to do a fair amount of heavy lifting.

?We didn?t have the help we have now,? said McCandless. ?If you went to a car accident or to help someone at their house, it was just you and your partner. You had to take the person down the steps and them lift them into the ambulance. Your ability to lift was important in those days.?

Today, more people respond to the scene of an accident. Each town in the county except Washington has a quick responder team that provides first aid to a patient until the ambulance can arrive.

?If we need six people to lift someone and carry them safely, we probably have them,? said McCandless.

The ambulance service employs a battery-powered cot to load patients into the ambulance. McCandless said this has allowed more women to join the ambulance staff.

?It has leveled the playing field in EMS,? said McCandless. ?Today, there are about as many women as men. That is because we have more help and better equipment.?

The ambulance staff has equipment that it can use at the scene of the incident to determine if the patient is suffering a heart attack. If the patient is suffering a heart attack, the staff takes the patient directly to the operating room.

?We also have more medications to give patients that control pain,? said McCandless.

Washington County Ambulance Director Richard Young estimated that his crews are called out about 30 to 40 times per week. McCandless said many of those calls are for people who are infirm and have fallen. Many times, the ambulance staff arrives on the scene and helps the person up without taking him or her to the hospital. Young said the ambulance receives about 500 calls per year for which it does not transport anyone.

Ambulance workers put in unusual hours. They work 168 hours over a four-week span and do all of that in just eight days. For the first three weeks in the cycle, a staff member works a 24-hour day and a 16-hour day, and the on the fourth week the staffer works two 24-hour days.

What is a typical day in the life of an ambulance worker?

?We have a facility and a lot of equipment that requires routine maintenance,? said McCandless. ?We?ve got chores to do. We have to take care of our rigs.?

While they?re performing their chores, the staffers must remain ready to hop into the ambulance at a moment?s notice. The ambulance workers listen to the police scanner all day. When the safety center calls the ambulance barn, the staffers hear loud tones alerting them of the call.

Curl said, ?If we hear there has been a car accident, we won?t even wait for the phone to ring.?

Young remarked, ?During the daytime, our policy is that they have one minute to get out the door after the phone call. At nighttime, it?s two minutes.?

McCandless said that if the ambulance goes to another town, the QRS team from that town will arrive on the scene and quickly inform the ambulance of the nature of the incident.

?They?ll say something like, ?We?ve got a 70-year-old female with a possible broken leg,?? said McCandless. ?The QRS volunteers are the heroes of EMS. They jump off their tractors to rush to the scene. They are underappreciated.?

When someone?s life is in danger, how fast does the ambulance drive to reach the scene?

?We?re limited to 15 miles per hour over the posted speed limit with our lights and sirens on, but it has to be done safely,? said McCandless. ?Safety is a big deal. We still stop at stop signs and at intersections. If the call is not to save life or limb, we are reduced to normal driving.?

Motorists who see or hear an ambulance should exit the road on the right-hand side.

Ambulance staff witness the worst of the worst on a daily basis such as helping badly injured accident victims. How does the staff cope with it?

?We have something called incident debriefing,? said McCandless. ?If you see something that is very disturbing, they?ll have a debriefing afterwards where you talk about it and try to get it out of your system. Not everyone can do this kind of work. It can be very stressful. We want to focus on the good stuff. The stuff you want to remember is the people you helped.?

People in need are relieved to see the ambulance drive up to their door. A majority of the time, the ambulance staff never find out what happens to the people they transport to the hospital.

?When someone calls us or sends us a card, thanking us for our help, that makes our day,? said McCandless. ?Every now and then, it?s nice for a family to call us and say, ?Mom is doing really well. Thank you guys for getting here quickly and doing such a fine job.??