Appendix E: EMS Responders and Organizations Recognized for Taking Heroic Action to Save or Care for the Injured, and EMS Authority Director's Speech
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RECIPIENTS OF GOVERNOR’S EMS COMMENDATION LETTERS
"20 DBs" Orange County Search and Rescue Paul Russell, Orange County EMS Agency Jo Webber Kimmel, Southern California Earthquake Preparedness Project Steve Dargan, San Luis Obispo County EMS Agendy The Lynwwod Fire Department
Award Speech Given by Daniel Smiley, Interim Director
Many individuals assisted in the response, it was a team effort, Governor Wilson appreciates the efforts of the EMS responders efforts. Governor was concerned that we may be singling out some and forgetting others. He wanted to emphasize that he personally thanks all of the responders to this event. We are here to thank the organizations and individual who put their life on the line. We don't thank people often enough for their efforts, and people make up the service delivery system for EMS. I would like to read for you a few brief descriptions of what it was like to be an EMS responder during the April Civil Disturbance. In the field, rioters and looters often surrounded the injured person and intimidated the responder. Gun fire was directed over their heads or at them, or guns were brandished. People continued rioting while efforts were made to treat the injured. EMS responders were cursed, provocative gestures made, and yelled at by angry, often drunken crowds. Cars drove by the scene, their occupants shouting threats. Friends and relatives of the injured got in the way and even made threats in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. On Thursday morning, a private ambulance driven through Willowbrook returning from a response the previous evening was found to have seven bullet holes stitched through the left side of the vehicle, starting behind the driver's door and working its way toward the rear. It had to be automatic weapons fire. The crew went back into the disaster area in another ambulance. While intensely involved in fighting a large apartment complex fire, two fire department paramedics saw an individual walking toward them in obvious physical distress. Blood was streaming down his face and it appeared that his nose had been broken causing breathing problems. During the evaluation they found that he had been stabbed in the chest. Medical attention was provided and the patient evacuated by ambulance. The fire fighters continued to fight the fire. At another location, two fire fighter-paramedics were fully engaged in trying to knock down a fire at a commercial building. They had just began to advance a hand line when they heard four shots ring out. They looked over at where they had just been standing and saw a fire fighter fall down as if shot. In fact he had been shot in the hip. The paramedics quickly stabilized him and he was quickly removed by ambulance from the scene. Again, the fire fighters continued their work at the scene even after one of their number had been shot. Hospital staff had to drive through areas torn by the civil disturbance or had to directly face problems at their home before they came in. For example "Near her home in Compton, Almond [a nurse] recalls walking through dense, black smoke. She soon realized its source: the -as station across the street from her home was burning down." On another occasion African-American nurses drove Korean-American nurses through the chaos, the nurses laying flat on the back car seat to avoid being seen by rioters. Other hospital staff's private vehicles were attacked with bricks and bottles as they made their way in. So, what did all of these Emergency Medical care workers do? EMS field responders received 3,638 EMS calls, and made 745 transports of 845 people to hospitals. Emergency department staff treated 2,383 injured people, 277 were critical. The people that we recognize today are heroes and heroines. What is a hero or heroine? Drawing upon the American Heritage Dictionary, it's any person recognized or noted for feats of courage or nobility of purpose; especially, one who has risked or sacrificed his or her life. These people here today show us that a hero is not someone on a white horse that we can't touch or be. It's someone like them, like us, citizens of our community. They risked their lives to rescue and care for their fellow citizens. In doing so they set aside their own immediate safety and served a higher good, the community good. These people being rewarded today were nominated because of their particularly meritorious actions to represent all of the emergency medical responders in the field, hospitals, and emergency operations centers. By recognizing these EMS heroes we also remember and recognize the citizens who live in the disaster area who risked their own lives to make rescues, and to help and protect emergency medical responders. Emergency medical workers can do their jobs in a disaster because public and private organizations stand behind and support them. Hospitals showed their commitment to the community by doing what had to be done to get the personnel, medical supplies, food, and other essentials together to treat the injured. Los Angeles City and County Fire Departments engaged in a creative and disciplined effort to organize the support network necessary to keep the field response going. Individual law enforcement officers, when they were able, did their job in the streets by protecting EMS personnel, rescue units, and ambulances. Private ambulance companies, assumed significant costs, by curtailing regular hospital transfers so that ambulances would be available. The County Emergency Medical Service Agency tracked hospital status, helped direct ambulance traffic and worked to meet the need for medical supplies and additional personnel. County and State workers supported these heroes and front line organizations by providing mutual aid, food, and other services. A brief list includes Orange County Emergency Medical Services, San Luis Obispo Emergency Medical Services, Riverside Emergency Medical Services, State Emergency Medical Services Authority, Office of Emergency Services, California Highway Patrol, and the California National Guard. In these selfish and violent times what we have before us is a group of citizens, heroes, who by their actions have set a community standard of service. It is a real standard because real people did real things that saved many lives. This is a standard that we all should imitate and seek to reach. It is particularly appropriate to honor these people just before Thanksgiving, a time when the community counts its blessings. They indeed, blessed all of us with their actions. It is with great pleasure that I present the following awards. (The speech was written by. Gus Koehler, EMS Authority.) |
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Medical Care for the Injured