COFEMS Elevates Training with Multi - Agency Rescue Simulations
By: Susan Turner, Senior Administrative Assistant, Orange County Fire & EMS, and Orange County Communications Department
Over three days in August, County of Orange Fire & EMS (COFEMS) conducted quarterly training for their shifts. Our first responders are no strangers to high - fidelity training, but this series of simulations reached new heights, literally! Each of our three shifts participated in the training, but on separate days. Training day began with multiple skills stations and lectures, discussing patient assessment, airway management, whole blood administration, and truck operations. Each crew ended the day by participating in a full - scale exercise to test the skills refreshed that morning.
The nature of the exercise was intentionally kept secret from participants to ensure the most realistic conditions possible. Trainings were held on August 7,
21, and 29 at Booster Park. In light of the proximity to Skydive Orange and the Orange County Airport, a scenario was chosen which focused on high - angle rescues and involved a pair of skydivers (portrayed by realistic training manakins) who had evidently crash - landed on top of the park ’ s pavilion. COFEMS personnel attended to the incident as if it were an actual emergency. They began by coordinating a response to the location, and set up ground ladders to access the roof. Medics climbed on top of the pavilion and split into teams to address the needs of each
simulated patient, which provided a culmination of that morning ’ s classroom training. Lending their voices and physical assistance to the manakins, training personnel adapted the patient ’ s reactions to test the responders. For example, simulating a patient that was yelling incoherently and moving frantically added a significant amount of difficulty to the situation. After providing immediate necessary care, each team prepared their patient to be moved into a Stokes basket, a type of rescue litter or carrying device used to secure and transport patients in difficult situations or terrain. Working with Ladder Truck 23 from Orange Volunteer Fire Company, the truck ’ s ladder was used to lift the patient over the peak of the roof, and then lower the patient carefully to the ground. Maneuvering the patient this way required
Page 17 | September 2024
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