Questionable 911 service at ice rink; Should firemen have medical training?
In my geographic area, a local fire chief has decided to require new hires to have EMT certification. The union is unhappy - maybe they fear that prior employees without the training, or who take it now and fail, will be paid less, or that he might eventually require it for everyone. I didn't think about this much until today, when a serious injury happened at a local ice rink while I was there. After all, you don't need medical training to put out a fire, or rescue a cat from a tree. Looking on the web, there have been such disputes in many geographic areas.
In this situation, the lady was in front of me. I don't think she tripped. She very gradually collapsed on one side, over a period of 2 or 3 seconds, landing on her hip. She said it hurt too much to move. Someone called 911. The respondents wore uniforms with fire department logos. I'm not sure if they carried medical training ID - it didn't occur to me to look. But they didn't act the way I was taught long ago (certification expired) in a first aid course. They walked over to her, laying on the ice, and picked her up, by arms and legs, without doing any kind of assessment. She expressed great pain, and they put her down. But after a few minutes, they picked her up again, with help from 2 bystanders, again causing expressions of pain, and carried her over to a back board, on a cart, 10 or 15 feet away. They caused her further pain as they tried to figure out how to carry her - she said it hurt to much to lay flat on the board. They loosened only the top level or two of lace one one skate boot, and removed it - which would cause pain and maybe injury even in an uninjured person. Rink personnel removed the other boot, by loosening the whole lace first. Finally, the firemen stuffed some things under her leg, and told her to stabilize her own leg as they rolled the cart with the back-board away.
Again, I do not know whether these two had any type of medical training. But I assume that if they had medical training, even first aid training, they would have done an assessment first, moved the backboard onto the ice next to the patient to minimize movement, and tried to avoid causing major pain.
Anyway, But it got me thinking. I think that when you call 911 with a medical emergency, they should ideally send someone with EMT training - or SOME sort of medical training, perhaps First Responder, or at least First Aid and CPR certification. And when it comes down to it, even in an ordinary fire, I assume a fireman might need to rescue someone who is injured, though I admit I have no experience in that area, and don't know whether all fireman have to go into potential rescue environments. I know it is important to be fair to prior hires, especially in a public service area involving substantial risk, but I think I want some level of medical training required for ordinary fireman, even prior hires.
Do you agree?