Wurtsboro firefighters asked to cease medical responses

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From Times Herald-Record

Wurtsboro firefighters asked to cease medical responses

Times Herald-Record

July 18, 2007

Wurtsboro — A call comes across the emergency scanner: difficulty breathing. Wurtsboro firefighters head out in the rescue truck, with oxygen and an automatic external defibrillator.

The only problem — Wurtsboro is not certified as an emergency medical service, or as a first-response service, or as a service that can use an AED. Some of the department's fire commissioners have told the firefighters to stop running to medical calls unless they have the proper certifications.

"The members say we should go anyway," said Commissioner Bill Lothrop Jr. He wants only qualified people running those calls, and only when the ambulance is delayed. "Of course we're worried about liability. In today's day and age, isn't everybody lawsuit-happy?"

"We've been doing it for years," said fire Chief Paul Champagne. He understands the concern, but he can't remember any lawsuits in 30-plus years.

Champagne said he and a few other firefighters have CPR-defibrillation training and certification. Two others have some EMT training. But the courses — 50-plus hours for basic first-responder certification — are prohibitive for volunteers who work two or three jobs.

And often, especially on nights and weekends, they can get to a call faster than the Mamakating First Aid Squad.

"Having them there, the patient will feel more at ease," said Peter Goodman, Mamakating's captain. "You're not going to hurt someone by giving them oxygen."

Champagne believes that since they aren't EMTs, the firefighters are protected by state good Samaritan laws.

Lothrop isn't so sure.

"Maybe he (the responder) isn't an EMT, but he damn sure isn't the man in the street, either," Lothrop said. "We don't send firefighters into a burning building unless they've been trained with the Scott (air) pack. You just don't do it."

Commissioners Karen Beissel, Karen Klein and John Bryan didn't return calls; Bob Hawkes declined comment.

"We would recommend that they dispatch trained medical personnel such as an ambulance service to a medical call," said Jeffrey Hammond, a state Health Department spokesman. In 1996 and 1999, he confirmed, first-response agency applications were sent to Wurtsboro at the fire department's request. The Health Department didn't get back completed paperwork. Greg Tavormina, Sullivan County's emergency medical services coordinator, said fire departments "should have trained personnel for the level of calls they want to run."

Dave Meade, a paramedic and Livingston Manor firefighter who teaches first aid for Wilderness Medical Associates, said that to give oxygen and use an AED, all the firefighters need is a CPR-with-AED class.

"It takes an afternoon to recertify that training," Meade said.

Champagne said if that's so, it could satisfy everyone.

"We are going to try to work together" with the commissioners, Champagne said. "And we are going to try to come up with a positive solution to this."

Photographer Michele Haskell contributed to this report.