Ambulance Director Gary Carmack

Ambulance Director Gary Carmack

Writing this column at Christmas time presents a dilemma. “Paramedic’s Corner” is usually about people being sick or getting injured. Once in awhile this column also addresses death, often an unsolved or mysterious death, as this column originated as “Coroner’s Talk” years ago when I was the county coroner.

The dilemma is that people don’t want to hear about illness, injury, or death at Christmas time. Of course, a big part of the column is preventative, as the paramedic has been charged, by national curriculum recommendation, to do public education regarding illness and injury prevention as much as possible. Therefore I often recommend preventative strategies in the column.

For this holiday season, I think I will just submit statistics in for November and other ambulance news.

The ambulance district responded to 405 patients in November. The highest call area was St. Robert at 140, followed by Waynesville 116, Richland 40, and Crocker 38. The highest destinations were Phelps County Regional Medical Center in Rolla at 88, St. John’s Medical Center in Lebanon 75, General Leonard Wood Army Community Hospital 58, and Lake Regional Medical Center in Osage Beach 16. This brings our yearly total patients thus far to just over 4,900 patient responses.

In other ambulance district news, the district just received the payment from Louisiana for our Hurricane Gustav mission to Louisiana in 2008. This reimbursement will cover the cost of sending our paramedics there during the emergency.

The 2010 budget and planning are underway. This makes a busy time of the year for management. Our EMT and paramedic classes have started but are on break until after the first of January. The EMT class ended up with 18 students and the paramedic class with 14. The district just went through a large inspection to renew its Missouri State Ambulance License. The district passed and is relicensed until 2014.

I want to take this opportunity to tell our sisters and brothers in fire service, police service, and our 911 dispatchers how much we appreciate them all. They are very special to us as we respond and work together throughout the year. We also want to thank the emergency room, clinic, and nursing facility personnel we work with all year.

We want to thank our patients, their families, and our citizens for their support. Merry Christmas to all and please be careful and stay safe. If the holidays get too stressful, stop by and visit the paramedics a few minutes and have us check your blood pressure and blood glucose level. Also, drive safely: just getting our friends and love ones to slow down will prevent most accidents and save many lives.

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