Emergency Services by Joey Stocking (EMS)

About 9 years ago my one and only child at the time started having some difficulty breathing. He started to cough a bit, then after a while he started to wheeze. My wife and I didn't have medical training nor did we know how to deal with the situation. We had only lived full-time in Bear Lake for a year or two and had never stopped to think what we would do if we had a medical emergency.

Our son vomited after choking on mucus build up so we decided we had to do something so we took our son over to the clinic in Garden City and got checked in and put in a room. The medical provider walked into the room and took one look at my son and calmly but urgently told a nurse to call for an ambulance. My son had developed blueish lips and was starting to really suck for air. The ambulance arrived and urgently headed to Logan with my wife and son onboard. All alone I drove myself down kicking myself for not recognizing a serious situation and offered up many prayers along the way.

The ambulance personnel took wonderful care of my son. He got to the hospital, got all the help he needed and everything turned out okay.

After the incident I started to think about that situation.

I felt grateful. Grateful to people with medical knowledge that effectively saved my son’s life. But then on top of that I learned that the ambulance workers were all volunteers. It blew my mind! I didn't even know we had ambulances stationed in our county, let alone people that left work or families to run to get an ambulance to help people, without any monetary compensation.

I also felt stupid. I didn’t know my child was in the early stages of respiratory distress. I didn't know that without intervention my child might not have made it. I cried. I was supposed to protect him, but I didn't know any better. I decided that as soon as I could I wanted to get medical training. Roughly 3 years later I decided to become an EMT and join those other Rich County Ambulance personnel. Why? For the selfish reason that I wanted to know how to help my family should something happen to them, but I also wanted give back and help the EMTs who had helped me. I felt I owed it to them. I learned we have some incredible EMTs in this county! Some that have been volunteers for 40 years!!

Things are changing in Rich County. It is growing and becoming quite busy in the summer. Busy enough that our volunteer force has become strained because of the time commitment involved. Luckily it sounds like a funding source has become available that the county will now be able to help compensate these volunteers for their time away from family and work.

My goal with this column is to share a little information each time on emergency services in Rich County. For your first brief lesson I’ll teach you how the EMS (Emergency Medical System) works in Utah. There are five certifications:

·        Emergency Medical Responder (EMR)

·        Emergency Medical Technician (EMT)

·        Advanced Emergency Medical Technician (AEMT)

·        Paramedic

·        Emergency Medical Dispatcher (EMD)

All EMS agencies work under the direction of a physician called “Medical Control” who helps set policies and procedures for the agency.

For those wondering Rich County currently has three ambulances, all of which are certified at the AEMT level, which means they are able to start IVs, give medications, and offer advanced life support.

Ambulances are staged in Woodruff, Laketown, and Garden City. Currently there are 3 EMTs, 20 AEMTs, & 1 Paramedic for a total of 24 providers. Our newest provider has been on the association just a little over a year, with longest serving provider approaching 40 years.

If you have ever wondered what it would take to help on the ambulance, feel free to fill out this form and I’d be happy to help: https://forms.gle/eFaUGMivu8EH42yWA