Rusty Rinehart
On October 21 over 40 people attended the presentation by the Goodyear Fire Department about making 911 calls. The event was hosted by the PebbleCreek WomenHeart Discussion group. Russ Braden, the Battalion Chief and Public Information Officer, gave an informative talk about what happens during a 911 call, how travel to the various hospitals in the area is decided and what we can do to make our health needs more accessible to the paramedics. Braden described the different symptoms of heart attacks for men versus women. He described the paramedic’s emergency procedures, just like in the movies. He went beyond that to tell us what hints paramedics would be looking for to give them much needed information about our health status, problems, etc. like notices on the fridge. One important example was do we have a DNR request? Is it documented somewhere or do the emergency crews go ahead and utilize all the technology available despite our wishes? How do we let the fire department access this information? What happens when they deliver you to the nearest available hospital and you want to go where your own physician works? How do we accomplish this? Why is it a really bad idea to take our loved one or neighbor to the hospital ourselves? Although it might take more time to get to the hospital if you wait for the ambulance, your chances of survival are better if they bring you to the hospital and have given the emergency personnel a heads up regarding what your problems are and how stable you are. Fire Chief Paul Luizzi spoke about the function of the emergency services available to us here in Goodyear and how to let the local emergency crews know your individual needs. Fire Inspector Tim Sinskins brought samples of boxes we can buy and attach to our homes that contain a copy of our house key and other medical information so that the paramedic crew doesn’t need to disassemble your front door to get in and begin emergency care. We must purchase these boxes ourselves and set the combination. We then fill out a form with the combination information and get it to the fire department so they have us on their computer and will open the door with the provided key. Most of us left with a better idea of what we could do in an emergency, how we could experience a 911 call with better results and the assurance that the Fire Department would be giving us the best care possible.