SOUTH DEERFIELD — South County EMS is preparing to upgrade its third ambulance with a new cardiac monitor with help from a federal grant.
Through the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Assistance to Firefighters Grants program, the regional ambulance agency that serves Deerfield, Sunderland and Whately received $47,619 to bring its third truck up to the advanced life support level. FEMA awards a small percentage of the Assistance to Firefighters grants to municipal EMS agencies, such as South County EMS.
South County EMS paramedic Laurie McComb, who wrote the grant, said the grant is the first step toward bringing all the agency’s vehicles up to the highest level of emergency medical care. As an added bonus on top of providing more advanced care for all residents, the three member towns approved capital funding for the cardiac monitor at their annual town meetings, meaning the appropriated money can now be allocated elsewhere.
“The fine taxpayers of Deerfield, Sunderland and Whately approved capital funds for this third monitor in this last budget,” McComb said. “By being awarded this grant, that money is going to be saved into our retained earnings to be used for something else down the road.”
A cardiac monitor is an advanced medical tool that allows paramedics and doctors to examine a wide variety of heart and respiratory vital statistics, including analyzing cardiac rhythms, heart attacks, along with oxygenation and capnography, which are the measurements of oxygen and carbon dioxide.
McComb said the cardiac monitor is a tool seen in most hospital units and is essentially an “AED on steroids,” which can defibrillate people’s hearts, as well perform advanced treatments, such as acting as an external pacemaker.
“It’s a complicated tool,” McComb said. “We bring an emergency room’s worth of equipment to a patient’s side.”
With the addition of the monitor, South County EMS’ third truck, a 2007 vehicle that was leftover from Sunderland’s ambulance company when the regional agency was formed, will be brought up to advanced life support level. McComb estimates the monitor will arrive in the late spring.
McComb said the vehicle is typically used for details at concerts, races and sporting events because the agency typically doesn’t run more than two trucks at once because it doesn’t often staff that many people for one shift.
With this truck brought up to a higher level, though, it means less time will be spent waiting for an advanced-level truck if a serious medical emergency does happen at a community event.
“Those resources are more readily available more quickly,” McComb said.
Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com or 413-930-4081.