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5th
Aug 2016

What Have Your Efforts Purchased For Your Community? - JulyAug 2016

 

(HCBEMS) Holiday City at Berkeley Emergency Medical Services

Submitted by Phyllis Brown

 

  I would like to add to the information I gave you last month about the helipad. Many of you have asked that I mention a man named Walter Kercheval. I did not know Walter. Walter Kercheval worked on the EMS squad for better than 10 years. The placket at the helipad is dedicated to him “for his tireless efforts in securing the LZ20 landing zone June 19th, 2012”, including his negations with the Hovnanian family to donate the site. The only reason the site is not named after him, I am told, is that he did not want it to be. I apologize to all of you how knew him, for not including this information last month.

 

   Before I tell you about the things The HCB EMS Squad has purchased, with your donations, I should mention that donations were down considerably this year. However, some rather wonderful life-saving equipment, and equipment that makes it easier for us to help you were fortunately in the budget for this year.

 

   We are now hooked up to a communications “app” on our smart phones. When you call 9-1-1, the county dispatches it to our radios, pagers and smart phones. The smart phone gets more information and the correct spelling of your address. Street names around here are sometimes very similar sounding but we can see the correct spelling and even a GPS map and directions on the smart phone. Don’t worry. This information is only transmitted to the person on your EMS squad and unlike the radio, can’t be accessed by everyone. 

 

We just got a new
ambulance, #202.
It was costing too much to keep repairing the old one which we keep as back up if #204 or #202 are out of service for any reason. We try to make sure there are always 2 ambulances answering calls every day.

 

We upgraded our AEDs (Automated Electronic Defibulators - For you who want less technical terms; the pads that restart your heart when your body can’t). 

 

We also purchased Automated CPR equipment, which does more consistent compressions than a human can do. It doesn’t get tired and we can transport you while it is doing CPR. 

 

   Last year we bought a new stretcher that enables some of our smaller and older responders to lift very heavy people onto the ambulance. It replaced an old manual stretcher that sometimes took 4 people to lift.

 

   One of my goals is to keep you informed about what is happening at the EMS squad, but the main goal of this column is to try and get some of you to volunteer. There is no HCBEMS without volunteers. We can use your help. No experience necessary! We cover over 11,000 homes in five 55 Plus communities. I know some of you work and some of you are not in good health but there must be more than 36-40 people who can volunteer for only 1 day a week, for a year or 2, to ensure the continuance of your FREE EMS squad. You’ll be CPR certified, get lots of training, a uniform and lots of experience. We are the busiest squad in Ocean County and we only care for our own communities. More volunteers are needed. Your coworkers and your patients will appreciate you.

 

   Now you can recycle Phone Books and Aluminum Cans at HCBEMS 

 

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