mahopacfire13

Buddy of mine designed one that mounts on an existing door. Runs about $2500? Spring loaded design with Multiple accessories. http://www.troxfire.com/

In an emergent situation (as opposed to the other kind we deal with), like the patient can't breath d/t the cars weight, or he is being burned by the muffler, and lets say your a bystander, awaiting arrival of the rescue (A thought brought up awhile earlier) I would most likely go for the car's own jack. Somewhat stable slow lift to if nothing else, get that vehicle up a few inches to end the threat to life. However if I'm on the truck, airbags and prolific cribbing all the way! If the airbags were OOS, I would probably reach for the farm jack (High lift jack) with again lots of cribbing! I again am favoring the slow, "intimate" lift if you will, where you can feel what is going on with the load and any slippage. People dislike them at times however because you work up a sweat using them. Sometimes I think the jaws or a hydro ram can be to powerful and to quick and it's better to do it old school!

Your problems are certainly not unique, we dealt with, and in many ways are still dealing with, most of the issues you described. For instance, our past police chief tried to impose protocols upon us that we disagreed with and went against our PA EMS protocols. Our medical director came through in a big way then, meeting with the vice presidents and saying we answer to State protocols before anyone else, for our own liability reasons. As for training, we struggle to find adequate training for our members as well. Ride-alongs would be optimal, but I understand the stink made about liability. We were able to get all our members to arrive early (2-3 days) after summer and winter break, and able to do some hardcore training then to at least build up their confidence a bit. Talk with your res life people, they were very willing to help us out with early move in. We also require a half semester of supervised care before they may be cleared to ride alone. This way more experienced members can show up to calls with them and provide guidance. The campus stigma seems like a big problem, because the students are your best ally. If they like you, the school almost has to follow. We got an amnesty policy through that allows those who call EMS in the event of a "Policy Violation" (Alcohol related incident, etc) to not have to face any disciplinary action (Don't worry, they still get a talking to, and the patient is still charged for not having self control but the caller is not held liable). We also do some give-aways and humorous T-shirt sales to win over the hearts and minds of the people. Everybody loves free stuff, especially poor college kids.

I am currently the director of DeSales University EMS down in Allentown, PA. We were named NCEMSF Organization of the Year last year, and we only started up the organization in 2008. We are a PA "Quick response service" (QRS) which treats students, but we do not yet transport (Working on it!) We have about 40 members, with about half being active EMT's. Some are involved in many other things on campus, so we try and not ask to much from our membership as we are completely volunteer. We only have bimonthly meetings and we ask them to run a minimum of 4 on calls a month (12 hours each, in which they just have to take the vehicle and be on campus), with one weekend shift included. We too were stonewalled by many administrators, our police chief, our vice presidents, etc and in some ways still are on certain topics. The best tips towards success that have for you are as follows, some may work, some may not but its what I can offer: - You need "adults" working for you. Whether it be a professor, a medical director, or a board member, at the end of the day we are still students and can only get so far. An "older person" who is willing to fight for you will prove to be invaluable. We found that our nursing dept. was excited to help us and was willing to fight for university support. - Generally, I found that if you are denied by one person, go on to the next. Its the old "mommy said no, but maybe daddy will say yes" trick. Dirty tactic? Perhaps but I find that most administrators believe they are in charge of a certain area when their actually not. -Anything you do, get published. Have the newspaper and news crews invited to every event you host, no matter how big or small. Get your name out there and build up good rapport. Colleges love, and will be more willing to support, ANYTHING that gives them good press to the public. Also check with your admissions staff to make up a pamphlet about your squad. They LOVE showing off how safe their campus is to prospective students. -Building off that, host events! CPR days, BP screenings, Giveaways, Raffles, Info sessions, ***Drills with police dept, fire dept, nursing dept,*** Start small but do something! Show the school your proactive and will benefit from their continued support. -Lastly, Cover your you-know-what. Save all e-mails and letters from the school. Get written confirmation of any support or promises they make because we were promised a lot and given a little when those who said they would support us chose to back out and we had no proof. I hope that helps a bit, feel free to shoot me an e-mail to with any questions I would be more than willing to help it is a battle with administration, but money is out their, especially for emergency management and preparedness. There is no reason you should not get a piece of the pie.

Old one I have of both birds on the Med Center landing pad, before they put one up in Orange county.

Old ladder was great, i remember being a kid and watching my father smack his head on the bucket every time he walked from one bay to the next. Its how i learned most of the elaborate vocabulary i use today.