Three members of Eastern Plumas Health Care’s Ambulance Department have just been awarded the prestigious Exemplary Performance Award for 2013 from their overseeing body, Nor-Cal Emergency Medical Services (EMS). EPHC Ambulance Dept. manager, Steve Waldeck, and EMT, Henry Johnson, were partners on the call. Leah Turner, Advanced EMT for Portola Fire Department, who is also a part of EPHC’s ambulance crew, all responded to the call for an unresponsive, possibly not breathing patient.
Turner was first to arrive on the scene, where she found the patient with very shallow respirations and a slow pulse rate. Soon after Waldeck and Johnson arrived in the ambulance, the patient went into cardiac arrest. The patient “went unresponsive, and was pulseless,” said Waldeck.
Turner left her truck at the scene and drove the ambulance so that both Waldeck and Johnson could work on the patient on the ambulance ride to the hospital. During the trip, they did CPR and managed to revive the patient before they reached EPHC’s emergency room. What is called a “field save,” meant the difference between life and death for a member of our community thanks to Waldeck, Johnson, and Turner along with other fire department personnel who helped at the scene.
According to Waldeck, the ambulance providers that work under NorCal EMS respond on approximately 20,000 calls per year, so to be on a team that receives this award is quite an honor. Emergency and ambulance services provided by EPHC’s ambulance dept. include answering 9-1-1 calls and providing pre-hospital and emergency department patient care. The Exemplary Performance Award honors an ambulance/emergency team or provider that exemplifies what it means to provide the best possible ambulance, emergency, or “pre-hospital” care.