The crew members know their stuff

Mon, 02/20/2017 - 8:30am

Sarah Thompson

Islesboro crew members Jeanne Porter, Fred Porter, and Phil Seymour work to stabilize a “young boy” with severe injuries as two members of the LifeFlight education outreach program observe. (Photo by Sarah Thompson)

Jeanne Porter and Earle Albert intubate. (Photo by Sarah Thompson)

(Photo by Sarah Thompson)

Let us help your friend. Oh, you say there’s a needle under his arm? Thanks for telling us. (Photo by Sarah Thompson)

(Photo by Sarah Thompson)

Flight nurse Nate Bassett controls the mannequin’s vital signs via I-pad. (Photo by Sarah Thompson)

(Photo by Sarah Thompson)

Heather Cady, Flight Nurse/Medic, center, listens as Islesboro crew members talk through a scenario. Billy Stuart, Flight Paramedic, far right, controls the simulation from an iPad. (Photo by Sarah Thompson)

P.A. Owen Howell, left, asks questions during a scenario. (Photo by Sarah Thompson)

(Photo by Sarah Thompson)

Grandmothers and children often find comfort in teddy bears as they ride in amublances. (Photo by Sarah Thompson)

There’s someone in that ‘bus.’ Oh, wait. You’re not real. (Photo by Sarah Thompson)

You can fit a lot into this little building at 150 Main Street, can’t you? (Photo by Sarah Thompson)

Catching a quiet moment? (Photo by Sarah Thompson)

(Photo by Sarah Thompson)

L-R Janice Leach, Owen Howell, Kevin Michael and Josh Leach (Photo by Sarah Thompson)

(Photo by Sarah Thompson)

Earle Albert, Jeanne Porter, Fred Porter, and Phil Seymour. (Photo by Sarah Thompson)

Jeanne Porter and Earle Albert intubate. (Photo by Sarah Thompson)

(Photo by Sarah Thompson)

Let us help your friend. Oh, you say there’s a needle under his arm? Thanks for telling us. (Photo by Sarah Thompson)

(Photo by Sarah Thompson)

Flight nurse Nate Bassett controls the mannequin’s vital signs via I-pad. (Photo by Sarah Thompson)

(Photo by Sarah Thompson)

P.A. Owen Howell, left, asks questions during a scenario. (Photo by Sarah Thompson)

(Photo by Sarah Thompson)

Grandmothers and children often find comfort in teddy bears as they ride in amublances. (Photo by Sarah Thompson)

There’s someone in that ‘bus.’ Oh, wait. You’re not real. (Photo by Sarah Thompson)

You can fit a lot into this little building at 150 Main Street, can’t you? (Photo by Sarah Thompson)

Catching a quiet moment? (Photo by Sarah Thompson)

(Photo by Sarah Thompson)

L-R Janice Leach, Owen Howell, Kevin Michael and Josh Leach (Photo by Sarah Thompson)

(Photo by Sarah Thompson)

Earle Albert, Jeanne Porter, Fred Porter, and Phil Seymour. (Photo by Sarah Thompson)

ISLESBORO – Quick: Six-year-old boy. Car accident. Right lung collapse. Lacerations covering the torso. Arm fracture. What do you do?

No. Wait. It’s an eight-year-old with a head trauma.

No, adult male. Motorcycle accident. One eye not responding. The other blown out. Weak pulse, raspy breath.

A woman in premature labor. A drug overdose.

Magnesium. Narcam. Adderall.

Every medical responder must answer these questions; yet, for the crew on Islesboro, a large island with a population of approximately 570 in the middle of Penobscot Bay, there is more nuance to the game.

Despite Lincolnville Beach being visible across the water — so close and yet so far — the 20-minute boat ride is too time consuming for effective mutual aid arriving from the mainland. LifeFlight comes willingly, but that medical evacuation service still requires an almost half-hour wait; therefore, members of the town must absorb all the outside knowledge they can find, and then turn to each other.

Standing at the helm is Fred Porter, director of Islesboro law enforcement and public safety, emergency management and ambulance, as well as animal control officer and shellfish warden.

Standing alongside him are 12 island EMS responders, including EMS drivers. Five per diem paramedics come from other parts of the state, and two nurse practitioners and one physician’s assistant provide ALS support from the health center.

The crew members know their stuff, bringing to the table various backgrounds and experiences. As is life, technology changes, guidelines change, and people change. So, on the snowy weekend of February 11 and 12, paramedics and nurses from LifeFlight drove from Bangor and Lewiston to Islesboro to provide reminder session to the island crew. In Saturday’s two to four inches of fresh snow, seven flight members spent hours staging the situations specifically requested by Porter. On Sunday, five outreach instructors returned for more sessions.

“We respond to 100-125 calls a year so these training opportunities are critical to keeping our skills up,” Porter said.

Two of the members of the ambulance are also firefighters, two are police officers. Islesboro public safety works with four units. Fire, EMS, Police and EMA. They also have a water rescue team mostly consisting of EMS an PD. The EMS responders are "paid on call,” according to Porter.

Lifeflight comes to the island three to four times a year, but that number can vary.

“You have all hands on deck when something happens,” said Islesboro physician’s assistant Owen Howell.

The two nurse practitioners and Howell work under the licenses of two mainland doctors. But, as the higher trained medical staff stationed on Islesboro, they must take call for advanced life support.

“It’s the same as if you went to the emergency department,” Howell said. “You’d have a P.A. who saw you and took care of you. Except, of course, you [the P.A. in Islesboro] are in the field, so you don’t have the choices. There are certain medications that you have to give.”

In winter, Islesboro gets quiet. One commuter to the island, who once stayed full time through the snow months, spoke of driving the loop in the evening.

“I could go for a drive at 9 p.m. and not pass another car,” he said. “That’s how quiet it can be here.”

Yet, in the summer, the island swells from hundreds to thousands. The tourists, the snowbirds, they migrate to the area. They bring the money that supports the economy, but they also bring a new – not always good – world with them.

Quick: While working to revive someone, the patient’s friend keeps trying to get close. Is he there to help or interfere?

Or, while seeking answers for the cause of a barely breathing, uncommunicative person, a bystander hands over a package that looks like an inhaler, found among the victim’s possessions. What kind of inhaler is it? Do you use it?

Together, with the help of the LifeFlight education outreach team and their highly intricate simulation mannequins, crew members were able to manage acute scenarios.

Such topics included pediatrics, cardiac issues, and airway management, according to flight paramedic Kyle Santosuosso.

Santosuosso played the role of the suspicious-acting friend during a drug overdose scenario so well that the island crew praised him for his acting. In response, he acknowledged his previous medical training in Yonkers, where such street behavior was more common.

This is the first time in the three years Santosuosso has worked for LifeFlight that Islesboro has requested the outreach education, though the program is available to all island communities on an as-needed basis. According to him, the program is requested frequently.

Last summer they provided sessions on Mt Desert Island with that crew, some responders from the Cranberry Isles, and some people from the hospital.

“The mannequins simulate almost anything a real person can experience,” he said. “It gives people the opportunity to see these high-risk patients that they don’t usually see in practice. If something doesn’t go as well as it could, it’s easy. No big deal. We could have some teaching moments and move on.”

Islesboro EMS includes the following people:

Fred Porter, EMT

Phillip Seymour, AEMT

Kevin Michael, Paramedic

Josh Leach, EMT

Jeanne Porter, EMT

Odesser Schoppe, AEMT

Gilbert Rivera, Driver

Bill Schoppe, Driver

Janice Leach, Driver

Nick Porter, Driver

David Runnion Bareford, Driver