Mount Laurel EMS Special Operations Group
In the event of a car accident, drowning in one of the lakes, creeks and other bodies of water in the Mount Laurel Township or other kind of entrapment, a victim may need more than life saving medical care. In these cases, Rescue Technicians from the MLEMS Special Operations Group stand ready to provide a variety of specialized rescue and support services.
The Special Operations Group is made up of four teams to complement the medical care provided by the EMS group: the Motor Vehicle Rescue Team, Marine and Cold Water Rescue Team, Mass Casualty team, and the Bike Team. While the teams have different roles, they all support our goal of delivering pre-hospital health care.
Motor Vehicle Rescue Team
Todayís modern vehicles are designed to crumple around the occupants and keep them safe during a collision. While the occupants themselves may suffer less injury, the damage can have the side-effect of trapping the occupants. In these cases, members of the Motor Vehicle Rescue Team will stabilize the cars in the accident to prevent further injury to the victims and quickly ìcut the car awayî from the victims allowing members from the EMS to safely transport them to the hospital.
The Motor Vehicle Rescue Team uses a 1988 Saulsbury Rescue Truck to transport their equipment and personnel. The truck is equipped with a 27 foot, 1500 watt light tower and several smaller portable lights to light the accident scene. It is equipped with electrically powered hydraulic cutting and spreader tools as well gasoline-powered portable tools. The truck also carries pneumatic cutting tools and airbags to free victims trapped under a vehicle or other heavy object. A full complement of medical supplies is carried on the rescue truck to allow Rescue Technicians to begin prompt medical care of injured victims.
The Motor Vehicle Rescue Team is staffed by Rescue Technicians. These technicians undergo a full year of training in a wide array of rescue scenarios. A Rescue Technician must be certified on each piece of equipment in order to become a fully-qualified Rescue Technician.
Marine and Cold Water Rescue Team
Mount Laurel Township has nearly 100 bodies of water within its boundaries. Some of these are easily identifiable such as the Rancocas Creek or the Lake in Laurel Acres Park. Others are less obvious but can be just as hazardous. Smaller bodies of water such as the retention ponds in many of the townshipís communities can be deadly to small children, the elderly or the injured. The danger increases in the winter when these temperatures in these lakes and pond reach freezing.
The Marine and Cold Water Rescue Team is responsible for locating and safely returning these victims to shore where the EMS can treat and transport them to the hospital. The Marine and Cold Water Rescue Team employs a variety of tools and equipment depending on the size of the body of water and the environmental conditions.
For larger bodies of water, such as the Rancocas Creek, the Marine and Cold Water Team has two Carolina Skiffs which serve as the primary Marine Units. Each of the units is equipped with searchlights, marine radios, floating medical equipment, PFDs for all the crew and potential victims and special equipment for moving an injured person from the water to Marine Unit. For smaller bodies of water, the team has Starns Cold Water Rescue Suits. These allow team members to work in cold water without risk of hypothermia.
Marine and Cold Water Team members receive a variety of training to insure their safety and their ability to conduct their mission successfully. All boat operators must pass a US Coast Guard approved Boating Safety and Seamanship course. Specialized water and cold water training is provided to the team members by nationally recognized instructors.
The Mass Casualty Team
In todayís changing world, the potential for an incident where dozens or hundreds may be injured is an ever increasing possibility. Even routine incidents, such as accident involving a passenger bus can result in a number of casualties that could overwhelm readily available resources. In these instances, Mount Laurel draws on its Mass Casualty Team, one of only two recognized in Burlington County, to augment its more traditional EMS resources.
The Mass Casualty Team has the ability to bring an entire medical treatment and triage system up and running right at the incident location. Using equipment in a specially designed trailer, the team has can set up three treatment zones based on patient priority. The treatments zones allow the most serious patients to be moved from the incident to a hospital quickly while providing life-sustaining treatment and care patients awaiting transport on scene. The trailer also has all of the needed tools to quickly triage all of the patients at an incident. By allowing the incident commander to determine the number of patients and the seriousness of their injuries, he can pass this information to receiving hospitals so they can prepare for the patients arrival.
All members of the department receive training in emergency triage using the S.T.A.R.T triage system and Incident Command Systems. In addition, members receive training in Domestic Preparedness and Hazardous Materials Awareness. This allows them to quickly work with Mass Casualty Team to set-up the treatment and triage system.
The Bike Team
A community as diverse and growing at Mount Laurelís plays host to a number of events drawing crowds from several hundred to nearly a thousand. Events can ranges in size from a small community fun run or soccer tournament to a large public festival such as Mount Laurel Day. Sporting events offer a potential for a lot of injuries while large crowds offer the possibility for a routine problem ruining someoneís day out. Because of the location of many of these events, even when an ambulance crew is standing by on scene, it can be a slow trek across the terrain for the ambulance crew to a patient.
The MLEMS Bike Team reduces the time it takes for a trained EMT to get an ill or injured person in these situations. The Bike Team is made up of two EMTs riding specially equipped mountain bikes. This mobile team can quickly traverse even the most inhospitable terrain and through large crowds to quickly arrive at the scene of a sick or injured person. The bikes contain all of the equipment needed to quickly assess and stabilize a patient including oxygen, an Automated External Defibrillator and basic first aid supplies.
Because of the independent nature of the Bike Team and the fact they can operate a significant distance from support vehicles and personnel, members of the Bike Team are chosen from the top tier of our care providers in the department. In addition to their EMT training, they are trained in safe operation of the bike and undergo frequent physical training drills with the team to insure they can meet the physical demands of the team.
While the Special Operations Group of MLEMS is made up of a number of different teams, all of the teams operate with a common goal. While the tools and techniques may vary from a rescue technician cutting open a car to allow an EMT to reach a injured patient to the bike team pedaling through a crowd as summer concert, all of the Special Operation Group team members are committed to insuring that every patient receives high quality emergency medical care in the field as quickly as possible.