Fairfax Rescue
Squad, Inc.
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FAIRFAX RESCUE NEWSLETTER Welcome back for our April edition of the newsletter. We have several items to report for this month. Squad Annual Business Meeting and Election of Officers The annual squad business meeting and election of officers took place on April 2, 2007 at 7:00 PM at the Fire/Rescue station. As well as normal monthly business we conducted the annual election of officers. For those who were not there here is a run down of officers for the coming year. President, Mike Spaulding, Vice President, Andy Higgins, Secretary, Betty Jo Westall, Treasurer, Brenda Smith. The Board of Directors consists of Mike Spaulding, Andy Higgins, Dan Vanslette as the crew chief rep, Jamie Rigoni as the Fairfax crew rep, Steve Ambrisco as the Fletcher crew rep, Denise Wells as the Fairfax community rep, and Dave Mayotte as the Fletcher community rep. Congratulations and thank you to all who agreed to serve. There were several changes in the appointed offices as well. The biggest change is that Sara Terrell after many years of serving as Training and Supply Officer has decided that she would like a little down time. Sara will be staying as a running member of the squad. I personally want to thank her for the endless hours that she has put into training and keeping up with the supplies that we need to stay in business. Stepping in as the new Training Officer will be Cheryl Feltz. Cheryl most recently has been running as a per diem with us but did run with us as a volunteer before becoming a mom. Cheryl will be coming back to run with us as a volunteer. I encourage you all to support Cheryl in this endeavor. She has a lot of experience in the field and some new ideas and she is looking for ideas and support from the squad. Joe Feltz has agreed to take on the task of Supply Officer. Expect that there will be some changes in how we do things supply wise in the future. We may be conducting an inventory of the supplies in the near future with the possibility of some type of sign out sheet for supplies used so the inventory remains accurate and with reorder levels in place. More to come on that as Joe gets settled in. Kevin Campbell is staying on as our Maintenance Officer. Andy Higgins is staying as Scheduling Officer. Betty Jo Westall is staying on as Health Officer. The Board moved to add a new position on the list of appointed officers, that being an IT Officer. The Board awarded this position to Jamie Rigoni who was so instrumental in getting our web site up and running. Jamie brings with him years of experience as a technician from IBM so he is well equipped for this task. Any problems of a computer or web site nature should be directed to Jamie. Jamie has already taken the step with the blessing of the board of porn proofing our computer at the station. As time goes on he will be setting up our network with similar limitations and all users of our network will have to sign an agreement on what is proper use of our network. More to follow on that. Andy Higgins will be stepping up as our District Board rep and our District Training rep is yet to be decided. Again a large thanks to those who have chosen to give of themselves for these offices. Training Training this month was on radio communications on April 16th with Dan Vanslette instructing the class. The class was pretty well attended. On April 23rd we did run reviews and reviewing runs from the month of March. This one was not well attended but those who were there gained some valuable information on documentation of patient care. While I think our patient care as a whole is excellent, documentation is the one area that we do not do consistently well with. The run reviews are actually group discussions on actual runs where we can bounce around different ideas on patient care and documentation. This can be beneficial to all of us. The great thing is that this counts toward your recert credit hours. The squad is currently looking into the feasibility of putting on a First Responder Course in Fairfax this summer. If this is something you are interested in please see Cheryl or Mike. The format of the class has not been set yet, i.e. once a week class or twice a week, or whether there will be weekend classes. It would be great to get input from everyone who is interested so we can accommodate the needs of the most people. We are also checking with our liability carrier to see when the instructor’s course for EVOC training is available. EVOC is Emergency Vehicle Operations Course. This is a program supported by our liability carrier and offers classroom and hands on training in emergency vehicle operations. While the training is not yet mandated, it is certainly encouraged by the insurer at this time. Milestones Happy birthday to Sara Terrill March 28th, and Steve Ambrisco April 3rd. Anniversaries: Dan Vanslette 13 years, Meredith Roberts 3 years and Willy Jane Patry 3 years. Congratulations to Chris Ashby who just passed his I-03 exam. Jackets and shirts Some people have expressed interest in having polo shirts and jackets ordered again. I would be happy to do that but would like to place one order. When last we ordered, shirts were about $20.00 each and jackets about $80.00 each. In the past the squad has purchased members their first polo shirt and we will continue with that. If we have never bought you a shirt before the first one is on us. Beyond that members are responsible for the purchase of their own jackets ( these are the green jackets with reflective lettering). If you would like a shirt or a jacket let Mike know what you would like and sizes and quantities. We will try to plan on getting the order in no later than the middle of May. You do not have to pay cash out of pocket for any of these. Instead we can deduct it from your stipend account. Membership We welcome another new member to our ranks. Valerie Smith is a resident of Westford and currently attending college. She is interested in taking the first responder course and wants to make herself available to us during the summer and during her school breaks. If you haven’t met her please take the time to introduce yourself and to welcome her to our little family. Of Interest The following is an excerpt from the St Albans Messenger date April 17th 2007 and I thought it would be of some interest: Larry Hetrick, 69, of East Alburg, met Thursday morning with the women who brought him back to life, Understandably, emotions were high when Pamela Scott, R.N., and emergency medical technicians Jennifer Mucha and Heather Wright greeted the bearded Hetrick at Northwestern Medical Center, where he had lain near death March 8. They hugged and smiled and recalled the time like vets having survived the battlefield. Hetrick is retired from IBM. A veteran of the US Airforce and owner with his wife, Renate, of the Rumplebox furniture store in Alburg, he had been brought by Amcare ambulance to NMC’s emergency department from the Hanniford supermarket in St Albans where heart failure struck him down. He was seen by the NMC physician on duty, Dr. Louis Dandurand, stabilized, and then sent in an AmCare ambulance to a cardiologist at Fletcher Allen Health Care in Burlington- Mucha at the wheel and Scott and Wright in the back caring for him. Ten minutes into the ride, Hetrick’s heart stopped. Renate Hetrick went through the ordeal, watching from the front seat of the ambulance, already burdened by a continuing ordeal in which her husband is battling prostate cancer. When hit by the heart attack, Hetrick eased himself to the floor at Hanniford, then scooted his cell phone across the floor to a woman “who looked surprised,” but picked it up and pressed the right buttons to alert 911 and call his wife. “I started feeling nauseous, dizzy” he said. “All of a sudden my arms went numb…it was almost an instant freeze, from my shoulders right out to my fingertips. I held them out there, and they were just completely frozen. I’m sure my heart stopped for a few seconds or whatever (while on the floor) and (then) it was just a headache and nausea and a numb feeling all over.” Hetrick and those who saved his life talked Thursday about terrible hours turned to joy because of the three women, a device called an automated external defibrillato, and a newly developed NMC/FAHC protocol for a specific type of heart attack known as STEMI, an acronym referring to a specific heart rhythm. The AED is a device that shocks the heart back into action. The American Heart Association is pressing the Vermont Legislature to put money behind a program that would make the device more widely accessible, Nicole M. Lukas, an association representative said at the Thursday meeting. It’s portable, costs about $2000.00 and a layperson with two hours of training can use it, she said. When she got wind of the meeting, she drove from Burlington to spread the word about the campaign and enlist Hetrick’s help, as Wright suggested, a “poster child” for the campaign. The Messenger at Hetrick’s urging, set up the meeting to get a photo of him with those who had saved his life. He was among the first 10 patients involved with the new two-hospital protocol, and, perhaps, the first patient under that arrangement to be brought back to life while being transported from a St Albans hospital to the hospital in Burlington. Walt Krul, AmCare’s’director, said he knows for certain that it was the first time, under the special conditions of the new STEMI program, that a patient being transported to Burlington had experienced heart arrest. “people don’t realize the cooperation that exists between the EMS crew and the hospitals, and the people up at 2 AM, for example, taking patients to Burlington- that there’s always an NMC doctor here, on the radio the entire trip,” said Krul. Hetrick certainly understands how important that planning and such lifesaving services can be. “I felt like there was no more pain. It was all over”, Hetrick said, recalling the moments before he suddenly lay unmoving in the speeding ambulance. “I remember saying something to the effect, I’ve hurt as much as I am going to. I felt like I was dying.” Hetrick added, “It’s hard to put it into words. It wasn’t exactly words going through my mind, but there were feelings. I had the awareness there was still somebody around me, right before that. And I couldn’t tell whether I was talking to them or not.” He said he was aware of someone – Scott perhaps – “was untangling cords” and that he “felt sorry for her”. As the ambulance flew toward Burlington, this is what took place. Scott: “I had just accessed him and asked him how his pain was. We use a zero to 5 scale. And he said ‘Oh, it is much better’. And I said can you give me a number? And he said ‘ Oh, probably a 1.’ I had turned around and was looking at the pumps, and I heard him moan, and I turned around and that’s when he had arrested.” And her thoughts? “Oh my God, he just said he was better! We continued to travel while we got things done that we needed to do.” Scott said “Heather started compressions (on his chest to get the heart going) and I got the defibrillator pads on and when everything was set, we told Jenn (Mucha) to stop.: Mucha pulle dthe ambulance over at Exit 17, about 10 miles from their destination. “I was praying” Mucha said when she was told that Hetrick’s heart had stopped. Scott added, “I pressed analyze on the AED and I shocked hime once, (per protocol), and gave him a good jolt, and he came off the bed and at the shock he went into a very slow rhythm, but it was a rythym, and Heather and I are going ‘Come on! Come on!” And all of a sudden he picked up a very fast rythym. Scott continued: Things get pressured at that time, because we are still doing our work and you have the hospital – they want their questions answered and their orders done. So it was a very bust ride.” And she added smiling, “But a very joyous one” All the while, the crew was in touch with both hospitals. Scott and Wright conferred with Dr. Danurand at NMC by radio from the time Hetrick came aboard the ambulance at Hanniford, until he was carried by stretcher into Fletcher Allen Health Care. Hetrick told the Thursday group, “The doctor came over and told my wife, ‘It’s very dire.’ And all of a sudden he got one artery about 20% open, and that gave him the ability to make the decision to wait until morning to do the catheterization and put the stents into the other two arteries.” Renate Hetrick, however, still remembers all the stress and anxiety of that day. “It felt like an eternity,” Renate Hetrick, said of just the couple of minutes it took to get her husband through the doors at the Burlington hospital. Everything that happened had followed a carefully scripted protocol and, what Scott said of the arrival at FAHC could easily apply to everyone at every step of the journey: “they were all prepared”. By Saturday morning when Hetrick regained consciousness, Mucha was there to see how he was. All three women called the hospital at various times to check on him. Larry Hetrick is grateful for the roles all played, especially to the ambulance crew to whom his life was entrusted. “they’re what made the difference. What they did was just miraculous. They saved my life and they didn’t even know me. I might have been a criminal. They took care of me like I was their own brother. I’m just so grateful”, he said. Hetrick looked about him Thursday while visiting some of his rescuers at the NMC. His smile said “thank you”. But he hasn’t completely reached a safe shore: he still has his prostate cancer to face. He will be going through tests this week, perhaps with a new appreciation of the many who will be there to help him further. Featured Member The only response received this month on biographical information came from one of our former members, Randy Brown. Randy was truly a valued member of the squad and I felt it appropriate that we do his bio. I joined the Fairfax Rescue Squad in the fall of 1999 as an ECA. Being retired, I was one of only a few available to work the day shifts. Since I lived only a few minutes from the station, I could serve from home and typically served two to three days per week. A year or so later, the state mandated that we be certified as Basic EMT’s. A bit of grumbling ensued, but we took the EMT classes. I forget now how many weeks they went on, but it seemed a long time and included many Saturdays. What surprised me then, and even more today, is that earning the EMT-B certification felt like more of an accomplishment than my AB degree from Harvard, even more than my MA in biology from Harvard. It still ranks near the top of my many experiences, but perhaps a bit below being chased by an angry bull walrus in the Canadian Northwest Territories in 1951.
Editor’s note: Many thanks to Randy for his years of service and for submitting this article. I encourage everyone to get me their bios so we can do this section of the newsletter. That’s about it for this month. I know the newsletter is later than usual but better late than never. Next month will also be late as I am on vacation at the beginning of the month. Be sure to send me anything that you think should be included. This month Dan Vanslette alerted me to the Messenger article.
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This page last modified: April 24, 2007.