Plains teen puts EMT training to use

Students taking the emergency medical technician — EMT — class at Plains High School still have another month to finish the course, but that didn’t stop one of Jan Hatt’s students to utilize his training.

Eighteen-year-old Thomas Tasakos heard his neighbor screaming for help about 6:30 p.m. last Tuesday. When he arrived, he saw that she was trying to separate three fighting dogs.

He jumped in to help separate them, to no avail. Each time they got one out and went for the other two, the third one would jump back into the fight.

It wasn’t long before the dogs’ teeth found their mark on both of his neighbor’s arms. “There was a lot of blood,” said Tasakos, a senior, who lives six or seven miles west of Plains. His mother’s boy friend soon showed up and fired two shots in the air, which caused the dogs to disperse.

Tasakos immediately switched his attention to the deep wounds on both the woman’s forearms. He said he simply reacted. “She lost enough blood that it was imperative that she get to the hospital,” said Tasakos. It was the first time he had the opportunity to utilize any of the skills he’s been learning in class.

This is the first year that Plains High School has had an EMT class. Hatt has 10 students in the class, which will finish at the end of the school year. However, to become a bona fide EMT, a student will have to pass a state and a national test, said Tasakos, who moved from Chimacum, Wash., last August to Plains.

He heard about the EMT class from Melody Earhart, a Plains High School senior who is also in the class, which can mean five college credits.

“I’ve always wanted to be a firefighter,” said Tasakos, but in Washington state, a firefighter must also be a certified EMT, unlike Montana, which has a lot of volunteer fire departments.

Tasakos joined the Plains-Paradise Rural Volunteer Fire Department as a junior firefighter last November. He also signed up for the Sanders County Search and Rescue Team, based in Thompson Falls. In June, after graduation, Tasakos is heading to San Diego for U.S. Marine Corps basic training. He plans to go into the crash fire rescue specialty in the Marine Corps. After life with the Marines, he’d like to become a full-time paid firefighter.

On Tuesday, Tasakos immediately assessed his neighbor’s wounds. He checked her vitals and though the bites weren’t life-threatening, they were serious enough to need attention. She was a little panicky.

First, he wrapped two towels around the wounds and applied direct pressure. He said he maintained pressure on the wound during the entire trip to Clark Fork Valley Hospital.

Tasakos said it felt good to be able to help someone. “It was nice to see that my EMT training paid off and that I could give back to the community,” he said. Tasakos said he also enjoys his training with the fire department and with the SAR team and recommends joining to juniors and adults.