EMT trainees practice for mass-casualty scenario

Sirens wailed and screams pierced the air May 27 as Emergency Medical Technician trainees arrived by ambulance at the Sanders County Fairgrounds to help 30-plus mock victims. The EMT trainees were completing their final class event, a mass casualty scenario.

In a mass-casualty scenario, EMT trainees must successfully help the largest amount of people possible. Victims are told how to respond to the trainees based upon their injuries and are even dressed up to look like real victims. Fake blood, shrapnel and plastic severed limbs are all part of the exercise.

“This is a situation where you have more patients than EMTs available,” Desiree Bruce said, and highlighted the fact that they must pick and choose.

The trainees did this through “triage,” a system where EMTs label victims based upon the seriousness of their injuries. Red is the most serious, yellow the second most serious, with green and black following. Emergency crews arriving later will then help victims in the order that they were labeled.

Yet, as simple and systematic as this might sound, the process is anything but. “You’re deciding who’s going to live and who’s going to die,” triage officer Misty Miller said. “I only had 30 seconds to open airways and identify them.”

The other triage officer, Joscelyn Cook found the screaming of the victims hard to block out. “Not running towards the people who were screaming loudest, but going to the people who we’re marked by the triage officers was the hardest,” Cook said.

As the trainees frantically ran from one mock victim to the next, proctors, licensed EMTs graded them on their progress. Seth Banhan, a proctor for the event liked how the trainees were applying what they’d been taught. “It’s going to be chaos, you can’t help that, so much is simply doing what you know to do, and doing what you’ve practiced.”

While knowledge is important, he also hoped that the students would be able to learn how to be empathetic while on the job. “So often what people need is not just another professional working on them, but someone who can understand what they’re going through or at least try to.”

On the other side of the activity, mock-victim Christian Beech, also had a good time volunteering. “It’s gets a little cold,” Beech said, speaking about the afternoon weather, “but it’s worth it to be out here with everyone. You get thrown into it and you can’t stop.”

All class members put in about a 160 hours of class time and must perform a minimum of 12 hours serving at Saint Patrick Hospital in Missoula, so that they get a feel for what a real emergency is like. They will then have to pass a national registry exam in order to complete the program and receive certification.

George Humeston, the other lead instructor and national registry exam coordinator, said that training hours and events are meant to give their students a true understanding of what they’re getting into. “We’re training people that are going to save lives and that’s the most important thing,” Humeston said. “And the most rewarding thing is to see these people finish it, get it done and then actually do their job properly.”

Humeston was proud to report that statistically 90 percent of his students pass the national test on their first attempt as opposed to the 55 percent nationally. Once the trainees pass their testing in the middle of June, they will be a part of the many volunteer EMTs serving the community.

Bruce said that 70 percent of the United States is manned by volunteer EMTs. “We all have real jobs and real responsibilities and come when were paged and I think that’s something that’s important,” Bruce said.