Local first responders adjust to pandemic
COVID-19 has changed the way Iowa Park Volunteer Fire Department respond, to medical calls.
Members are taking extra precautions to protect not only them, but those they are sent to help.
The emergency medical team members always wear at least a mask and gloves to all calls, and if a patient has symptoms they can completely gear up with hazmat type suits and other protection gear. The Iowa Park dispatchers who take the calls ask the caller more questions, so they can relay to the EMTS a better picture of what is going on with the patient. Each members has been assigned personal protection equipment. When the EMTs arrive on scene they ask additional questions before entering the patient’s home. “If the patient is able to go outside, the medical team never goes into the residence.
“Everything we are doing is for not only our safety, but theirs,” said IPVFD Chief Lewis Skinner. “Some of us work in the medical field as our paying jobs that require us to potentially have contact with a COVID-19 positive person. Also, we have members of the department who has family members who are high risk due to medical conditions as well as members with small children. We have to protect our families too.”
Skinner said when they do go inside a home the minimal number goes in. He added that some members are not responding to calls right now because of the risks or because their employer doesn’t want them to do anything outside work that might expose them to COVID-19.
Members of the department are encouraged to carry an extra set of clothes with them to change into when they return from a call, especially a high risk call. However, they do not have a place at the department to shower before returning home.
“The people on the department has done an amazing job following protocol and decontaminating the equipment and working as a team,” said Skinner. “The dispatchers have done a phenomenal job getting us information and making us aware of what we are walking into. Also, the Wichita County Health Department has done a great job getting us information to help keep us safe. And Lee with Emergency Management has done a great job getting us equipment. There has been a lot of coordination with the fire departments across the county and we have worked together and that has been wonderful. We have a great support system.”
Despite all that there is still concern every time they make a medical call, but the support makes it a little easier.
