Letter to the Editor -- Grant City Ambulance Service

 Citizens of Worth County:

I have had concerned citizens ask me why Grant City Ambulance is taking forever or not answering calls. People are asking me why I no longer answer calls,this may make some upset but I feel the community has the right to know. I, along with others, were asked to turn our radios in if we could not go on weekend call (Friday 6 pm-Monday at 6 am). As I own two businesses and was training my workers to run it without me while Brian had his transplant, I regretfully turned mine in. I knew it would be hard for those left in Grant City to answer calls as they also work or have school. I do not like it—now citizens have to wait longer as ambulance comes from Sheridan most times. I feel the community needs to be aware of this, as they decide what to do in case of emergency. Please remember, these are all volunteer workers who also have other jobs and new trainee testing has been postponed due to the Covid 19 Virus. There is always a need for new volunteers, contact the Worth County Ambulance Board.

Hope this helps answer any questions or concerns the citizens might have. 

Sincerely, 

Kathy Sherer

Grant City

Five Taking EMT Training for Worth County

Five new people are taking EMT classes to become EMT’s for Worth County. Thursday night was orientation night, and classes will continue through February. They are taught by current EMT’s Jean Hanks, Phillip Hanks, and Sherri Runde. Albany and Stanberry have agreed to provide ride-alongs as part of their training. Prospective EMT’s must pass a state test with a score of at least 80%. The EMT is a volunteer service; the goal is to have at least two people on call at all times.

Mercy One Crew Conducts Sheridan EMS Training

The Mercy One Crew came to Sheridan Thursday evening to conduct a training for local EMS crews on how to work with each other during an emergency and to facilitate communication. The pilot is Marty Iske, an Army veteran of 14 years; of those 14 years, 10 of them were spent flying a Black Hawk. He said that when he left the Army, his present job opened up and it worked out perfectly for him since he is from Clarinda. Other members of the crew were Wes Skarda, Flight Nurse and A. Qualseth, Paramedic.

Skarda said that the main two things they wanted to know when going into a situation were the weight of the person and where they were headed. Iske said that he wanted to know where any obstacles were in the landing area such as trees, buildings, and power lines. "Just get us to a safe landing zone," said Skarden. Once they get the call, it takes them 5-10 minutes in optimal conditions to get off the ground safely and another 15 minutes to get from Clarinda to Sheridan. It could be 10 minutes more in the event of bad weather.

Iske had never been to Sheridan before a few weeks ago; however, his Army training helped him as he knew where Hopkins was and he knew to follow 246. One paradox is that it is easier to find a scene during the night; he said that during a clear night, he can see the scene once they get airborne at 2,000 feet. It is more of a challenge during daytime.

Contrary to popular belief, the strangers hanging around with Fire Chief Butch Thomas were not SWAT team members trying to protect everyone during the drama of the prisoner escape. Instead, it was the Mercy One crew members picking out a landing site for Thursday night's meeting. Mercy One crew members are not First Responders; it is the job of the local EMS crews to get the victims stabilized and onto cots so that they can be transported. From Sheridan, Mercy One typically goes to St. Joseph since it is closer; however, they can go to Des Monies as well.

One of the most important things in life flight rescue situations is crowd control. Either one of the crew members or a Fire Department member stands near the helicopter to make sure that people stay away from the back of the helicopter. The rudder can hit someone and cause death or serious physical injury if someone gets too close while the craft is running. "Don't worry about equipment falling off; your only job is to keep people away from the back of the helicopter," said Skarda. He said that on occasion, he has had to tackle someone who had gotten too close to the craft. They don't mind people watching; however, they ask that people stay away from the craft. If a piece of EMS-owned equipment winds up at the hospital in St. Joseph or Des Moines, one of the jobs of the crew members during rainy days is to sort through it and mail it back to people on days in which there is nothing else to do.

Qualseth said that they were partners with the local crews. He said that there was no need for people to scatter too far, although people should stay at least 100 feet away from the craft for their own safety. The job of crews is to keep working even as the craft arrives. "We'll work around any situation we encounter," he said. When they arrive, the Mercy One crew will figure out what happened and conduct a head to toe assessment of the victims. They will ask for people with different skills to help. Sometimes, all they need is for someone to do light tasks for them like open packages so that they can concentrate on their work. The job of the EMS and the Mercy One crew is to stabilize the victim so that they can be transported to the hospital.

Skarda said that it was better to pull the trigger too quickly on calling the Mercy One crew instead of waiting until it was too late. He said that in that event, the only thing they lost was the fuel on the craft. It is routine for them to get a call and then halfway there, find out that the situation was not as serious as initially believed.

Crew members showed EMS personnel how to help load a patient on the craft. The craft is running at that point as the pilot wants to take off as fast as possible in order to get the patient to the hospital; therefore, it is not possible to communicate verbally due to the noise of the craft. In that event, it is essential for the crew members to communicate with taps and hand signals and for local EMS crews to understand those signals.

One of the questions the crew got was on transporting people who weighed a lot. They actually turn down more patients for being too big than being overweight. The crew is licensed to fly with so much weight; if they have to, they can fly around until they've used up enough fuel so that they can fit the patient into the craft. The only time they have had to turn someone away for weight was on an occasion when a victim weighed around 400 pounds. They have flown people close to 300 pounds. On the other hand, if they fly someone who is too big, their feet will be on the pilot's controls, which creates a hazard to the entire crew. "We don't blindly turn anyone away; we come to the scene and we try to make it work," said Iske.

Anhydrous Ammonia Disaster Exercise Held in Sheridan

An anhydrous ammonia disaster exercise was held in Sheridan Saturday morning to train emergency crews on what to do in the event that an accident happens involving anhydrous ammonia. Anhydrous ammonia is very dangerous material and in the worst case, people have to be evacuated upwind from the source in the event of a major leak. Sterling Hopkins, manager of Worth County MFA, said that the first step in an ammonia accident was to call him immediately so that he could notify corporate headquarters as well as have properly trained people to work with emergency crews. Ammonia in sufficient concentrations can overpower a person in as little as 20 seconds; during the training session, a video was shown of a responding officer who didn't realize the danger of ammonia and who was killed responding to an accident in 20 seconds. Ammonia is used as fertilizer for crops; however, it must be handled carefully by properly trained personnel.

Excess pressure can result in tank failure, which means that tank volume cannot exceed 85%. It is inflammatory to skin and it is dangerous to life and health in as little as 300 parts per million. Contact lenses can make it worse because they can trap the vapor; it is inflammatory to the eyes. In an ammonia accident, the emergency response is complicated because the victims must be placed in a tank of water to flush the anhydrous ammonia and minimize the effects. Dangerous concentrations of anhydrous ammonia can extend well beyond the visible vapors and it can easily be mistaken for ordinary smoke from a fire. Releases of more than 100 pounds must be reported to state and national authorities.

In the simulated accident, a car collided with an anhydrous ammonia tank resulting in two fatalities and people being thrown from the vehicle and ammonia leaking from the tank. The new Emergency Command Center that the county has was deployed in response. Another complication in dealing with anhydrous ammonia accidents is the fact that it takes 100 gallons of water for each gallon of ammonia to be contained. Therefore, fire departments must consider alternative water sources when dealing with ammonia releases. Vehicles must be placed upwind of the ammonia, runoff water must be controlled, and contaminated water must be disposed of.

For smaller releases, emergency authorities can have people stay in homes with windows closed. However, large incidents require immediate evacuations and appropriate roads closed off so that passing motorists are not exposed. Specialized protective gear must be worn and downwind operations should not be considered unless absolutely necessary. Even if anhydrous ammonia does not release right away in an accident, it can do so later.

The exercise itself involved donning protective equipment and treating a "victim" with a broken leg. Treatment requires washing the victim's eyes for 15 minutes if the eyes were exposed. The first priority is to get victims out as soon as possible, and then deal with the anhydrous leak. The Worth County Ambulance completed training requirements for many of its members back at the firehouse, where four more "victims" were. Mary Jo Riley role-played the part of a hysterical relative frantically trying to get information about one of the victims. The Sheridan CBC hosted a lunch for the volunteers afterwards. One of the biggest areas identified was the fact that two of the radios did not work on the appropriate frequency, something that Emergency Management Director Pat Kobbe said she was glad to discover during a drill and not during the real thing.