|
Sussex County paramedics rode camels, fixed a flat tire and conquered living in a foreign country during three days of an intense international emergency medical service competition. They survived and brought home a third-place trophy.
“We were just as excited as if we won the whole thing,” said team member Stu Hensley.
The team of Hensley, Holly Donovan, Jill Wix and Robbie Murray competed Sept. 7-9 in the Magen David Adom (MDA) Olympics 2008, an international 40-team, 12-country competition in the Dead Sea region of Israel.
Teams from Poland finished first and Holland second in a competition that included 11 different emergency scenarios. Teams were evaluated for treatment effectiveness, timeliness and teamwork.
Hensley said the Sussex team’s finish is even more remarkable because the international teams include not only paramedics but also physicians and nurses. “Poland’s team had a physician and Holland’s team had emergency nurses,” he said. “So I think our showing speaks a lot about the training we get here in Sussex County. We are up to par with other countries. It says a lot.”
The team could not travel with its own equipment and arrived in Israel literally with the clothes on their back. “It was nothing we were familiar with,” Hensley said. He said the competition was intense and by far the most impressive he has participated in. “It was far more realistic with many more scenarios,” he said. “They also worked a lot about the history of Israel into the scenarios.”
The competition ran from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. each day. “We got to see a lot of the country and covered 350 kilometers on the second day,” he said.
He said his team agreed the most unusual scenario involved a call for an unconscious 1-year-old in a Bedouin village that was not accessible by ambulance. The only way to reach the village was by camel.
So the Sussex County paramedics loaded up their equipment and rode camels about a quarter mile to the village.
In another scenario, the team was judged on teamwork as it was hit with a flat tire and an obstacle course and then had to construct a ramp for the ambulance.
“We are thrilled beyond words with our team’s performance and with the recognition that comes with having placed so highly in competition with our peers from around the world,” said Glenn Luedtke, director of Sussex County Emergency Medical Services.
|
