The five teams that competed in the Friday, March 24, finals of the 2006″žJEMS Games competition marched into the EMS Today exhibit hall with all the fanfare of the 2006 Olympic Games. The teams were escorted into the hall on Saturday afternoon by the Baltimore City Fire Department honor guard, with Olympic music playing and loud applause by conference attendees, their fellow competitors and vendors.”ž
Cheers resonated through the massive exhibit hall when it was announced that the three-member team from Fire Department of New York EMS took first place in the challenging competition. The FDNY team stood proudly on the elevated podium and accepted their gold medals and prizes totaling more than $6,000.
2006 JEMS Games Gold Medal: Fire Department of New York – New York, New York
Silver medals were awarded to Sussex County EMS, Del., (2005_s first-place winner) and bronze medals were awarded to Regional EMS Authority (REMSA), Reno, Nev.
Thirteen teams of skilled and passionate EMS providers competed in the third annual”žJEMS Games at EMS Today in Baltimore, March 22à24. Of the participating teams, five finalists Æ’ FDNY EMS, London Ambulance Service (England), Palliser EMS (Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada), REMSA and Sussex County Æ’ were selected from the preliminary competition to advance to the final scenario.
During the Friday evening finals, hundreds of spectators watched the international teams arrive on the scene of a medical helicopter forced into a hard landing after a “bird strike” in the cockpit bubble. Standing next to two ambulances (provided by Baltimore City Fire Department), team members listened to audio of the air EMS crew_s last radio communication and assessed the scene. Inside the fuselage of the air ambulance (on loan from Maryland State Police), the teams found four patients Æ’ three flight crew members and the cardiac patient they were transporting.
With high excitement and intensity, the teams triaged, assessed and treated the four patients in a style all their own. The care was complicated by the fact that the patient being transported was on an intra-aortic balloon pump that failed after the hard landing, sending the patient into cardiogenic shock. With a Baltimore Fire crew laying down foam and hurrying the crew to remove the patients as expeditiously as possible, all participating teams maintained their composure and provided exceptional care to the victims.
Once the scores were tallied, FDNY Æ’ which received extra applause from the audience due to their unique style, distinctive dialect and outgoing personalities Æ’ came out on top and was awarded the gold medal the following day.
Look for more on the competition and the winning teams in May”žJEMS Priority Traffic.
