EMS Team Wins Across Seas

An international EMS competition this month may have taken place in the Dead Sea region of Israel, but the Sussex County (Del.) EMS team’s performance was far from dead — their exceptional performance saving lives in emergency scenarios (although simulated) earned them third place out of 37 teams from across the globe.

Sussex County EMS, an annual participant in the JEMS Games competition at the EMS Today Conference and Exposition and 2005 gold medal winners, are thrilled with their international win. Paramedics Holly Donovan, Stuart Hensley, Jill Wix and Robbie Murray comprised the team that flew to”žIsrael for the Magen David Adom Olympics. The three-day competition involved 11 scenarios, and teams were evaluated on their clinical skills and speed.”ž

What made this international win so special to an already award-winning”žEMS agency was the challenge of being on foreign soil. Although the official language of the event was English, the team was required to carry a completely different set of gear, communicate with some evaluators who weren’t fluent in English, and compete against teams that included doctors and nurses. Hensley says, “It felt really good when we realized who we were working with. We were competing on their level, with a group that works with doctors and nurses every day.” Many countries set up their prehospital care to include doctors and nurses on emergency medical crews.

Hensley says that what set their team apart from others was their training. “We practiced the way we [operate] every day in Sussex.” Sussex EMS Director Glenn Luedtke adds, “Bottom line, [the team was] successful for the same reasons they’re successful in the field àš education, preparation, experience and determination.” The only teams that beat this level of quality care were Poland (first place) and”žHolland (second place).

Scenarios included an injured infant, a myocardial infarction, a school bus accident, a pulmonary embolism, a tiger attack and a Roman soldier with an arrow in his chest. Hensley says that treating the myocardial infarction was the easiest for them “because we deal with them every day.” MIs occur routinely in Sussex since they have a large elderly population. He said the most difficult was the “pulmonary embolism in the park, because after we diagnosed the patient, he arrested.”

Sussex County plans on competing in the 2009 JEMS Games and is looking into competing in future EMS competitions in Poland, Turkey and the Czech Republic. They may also compete again in the Magen David Adom Olympics, a bi-annual event, in 2010.

For more information on the JEMS Games and the EMS Today Conference”ž& Exposition, go to”žwww.emstodayconference.com.

Michelle Barbeauis a JEMS and JEMS.com editor.Click here to contact her.

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