by Brian Kern
May 19, 2008 05:19 pm
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DANVILLE — Heather Coburn is no stranger to critical situations. Coburn, Hendricks Regional Health’s Emergency Medical Services coordinator, remembers helping to douse flames as a 16-year-old volunteer firefighter before the days of liability and litigation. Perhaps it was that experience that accounts for her life-long appreciation of emergency medical technicians and paramedics in the EMS profession.
Coburn and her colleagues from Hendricks Regional Health will join together to show appreciation for the network of 750 EMTs and paramedics who transport patients in Hendricks and Morgan counties to and from the hospital. She says that those in the profession are some of the hardest workers one would ever meet.
“You don’t do it for the money, that’s for sure,” Coburn said. “It’s a very tight-knit community and just to show how much so, there are medics in one town that are on part-time lists in other places. There is a shortage of paramedics out there and they are trying to meet the needs of everyone out there and that can be hard on you physically.”
Still, she says, they manage to do it and with considerable success.
Hendricks Regional Health audits show that well over half of those patients transported to the hospital by an EMS provider are actually admitted to the hospital.
“That tells us that we truly are bringing in sick people and that they in fact needed to be brought in,” Coburn explained.
Bob and Becky Allen are two EMTs who share a somewhat unique work situation. The married couple work as partners for the Town of Danville.
“It’s a change every day,” Bob said. “Every shift is a completely different thing and I really enjoy working on the people end of it.”
Becky added that she and her husband share a strong chemistry and can actually anticipate each other’s moves.
Several important events will highlight this year’s EMS appreciation week. Free bicycle helmets will be given away from 5 to 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Avon Wal-Mart store.
“One of the things EMS workers would like to see is people using the simple safety devices provided to them like a seatbelt of a bicycle helmet,” Coburn said. “Sometimes we take those things for granted and they can make a big difference in life and death.”
Coburn also encouraged Hendricks and Morgan county residents to visit their local fire station and request a free life-pack, which is essentially a form used for documenting a patient’s medical history. Once filled out, the form is placed into a little pouch with a magnetic back.
EMS workers request that residents place that pack on the top right-hand corner of their refrigerator and Coburn noted that EMTs, paramedics, and firefighters would then be able to retrieve this vital data in the event of an emergency.
brian.kern@flyergroup.com
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