Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Kevin Lund, a transport nurse with Aspirus MedEvac, leads a training exercise on Wednesday for the 24 volunteers with the Hurley Fire Department.
By TOM LAVENTURE
Hurley - Medical helicopters can make the difference when critical care time is of the essence and a Hurley Fire Department training on Wednesday was to prepare rescue teams for their role on the ground.
The department training has been online throughout the pandemic and the rules now allow for Aspirus MedEvac to land their air medical team in the field adjacent to the fire hall for hands-on training, said HFD Chief Mike Sejbl. The department's 24 volunteer firefighters prepare to be the lifeline for medical incidents or accidents on trails, highways and other remote locations.
"They (Aspirus MedEvac) are available for a department call and not just a hospital call," Sejbl said.
The training is about coordination, he said. It takes about 15 minutes for the Aspirus medical helicopter to make the flight from Woodruff to Hurley and so by the time the request is called in the firefighters need to have completed the site plan and be waiting for the arrival.
The helicopter needs, ideally, 150 feet across and wide to land, he said. The firefighters walk the scene and remove anything that might interfere or cause an injury from the rotor blast.
The helicopters are fitted with technology to fly in all kinds of conditions and at night, he said. However, the region does present its challenges with trees, extreme cold and ice, power lines, lake effect snow and then there is alway gravel and other debris when landing.
"It's not that easy to find some landing zones in some of these areas," Sejbl said.
When an air medical flight is needed the chief designates a landing site coordinator who will in turn direct four firefighters to clear and secure the landing site. Once the helicopter has landed the site coordination is directed by the flight crew.
"This field here is nice," said Mike Gross, the Aspirus MedEvac pilot who landed on the city field that was at one time a baseball field and track for the former high school. "It's wide open and something they can secure and so it works out really well."
The MedEvac crews are accustomed to the facility transports from hospital to hospital, he said. The training here is to provide the firefighters an opportunity to become familiar with the aircraft and understand the crew expectations regarding remote medical evacuations as far as landing zone requirements and radio communication.
"A lot of times we get these guys to help with the loading of the patient so then they understand the whole dynamics of the aircraft and how all of that works," Gross said.
The fire department training also helps them to identify alternate landing zones if it is not possible to land at the location or a nearby road. This is where the firefighters train to move a patient to the helicopter themselves or to a waiting ambulance crew to provide transport to the helicopter location.
"That just further expedites transport for critical care and keeps everything safe," Gross said. "They usually already know that, and if they are saying we want a helicopter then they've already got an area set up."
Gross flew in on Wednesday with two transport nurses, Kevin Lund and Kevin Mittelsteadt, who conducted the firefighter training. Their smaller medical helicopter is more ideal for remote landings than the larger medical facility transport helicopters. There is room for the pilot, a medic, nurse and patient.
Joel Bach, the northern region supervisor of Aspirus MedEvac, and Alicia Zazeski, a MedEvac paramedic, both live in the Hurley area and helped out with the classroom training portion in the firehall. The two said the area community should be comforted by the thought that a medical flight can be on scene in minutes and then transport someone to Duluth, Wausau or another definitive care destination.
The medical flights used to come from Wausau in the past and required about 45 minutes and the patient had to be transported to a hospital where the helicopter could land, Zazeski said. The remote landing sites make it possible to extricate a patient and transport them more quickly, which requires the fire department training to identify landing sites.
County emergency managers and fire departments are working on identifying and designated landing zones throughout the county, Bach said. These sites are prepared ahead of time and the coordinates are known to flight crews to land in the event a location landing is not possible.
"They can designate a spot where they are going to go and it's all set up," Bach said. "That part of the safety factor is done ahead of time and they just need to secure that spot after the call."
