EMS Calls

CONTINUED FROM 4 always two people who can respond, and then two to four more who can assist the primary responders within five minutes. Generally, there is always someone on scene with paramedic-level experience to administer advanced life support services.

However, when a rural EMS agency responds to a call, the likelihood of having a paramedic with a patient is less certain. Ashing said about every community — if not every community — in Jasper County has at least one paramedic. But life and other factors may limit that individual’s response time.

Which is where the sheriff’s office’s part-time reserve deputy paramedics come into play. When either Ashing or fellow paramedic Jacob Halferty arrive to a scene, they have to step in and serve as the primary care provider as they have the highest level of care experience among the volunteer EMTs.

Oftentimes the small town volunteers are still the first teams to respond to calls, but there have been instances where the reserve deputies administered care before other agencies arrived. John Halferty said there are good, dedicated people watching over the small towns, and the program is not taking them away.

When Ashing and Jacob Halferty are not responding to medical calls, they are still conducting duties as reserve deputies by providing backup to other deputies, patrolling communities, following up warrants, covering administrative duties, enforcing code violations and conducting traffic control.

Several of the volunteers in the small towns are EMTs, but that level of certification still limits what they can do. Ashing said an EMT can perform CPR, use AEDs, package wounds, stop bleeding and use splints, among other things. A lot of what an EMT does is assessing patients and recognizing conditions.

“Stroke, heart attacks, breathing problems. Does this person have a breathing problem? Is it just a simple asthma-type thing? Or is it more? A lot of it assessing the patient and being able to know when to call a higher level (provider),” Ashing said.

“And they can’t give many medications themselves but they can assist.”

Apart from giving aspirin and glucose, EMTs may assist patients in taking medicine they are already prescribed, like an EpiPen.

Hours of schooling also differentiates EMTs from paramedics. For some people, Ashing said it is too much to ask a volunteer to dedicate the amount of hours it takes to be a fully trained, fully certified paramedic. Unless they are working for a municipally owned fire/EMS station, there is not much incentive. Plus, it’s costly.

“It’s a daunting thing,” Ashing said. “You have to be the right person. EMT is a basic stage and gives you some basic knowledge of major life threats, major bleeding, major breathing issues. But it doesn’t get down into the nitty-gritty, the pathophysiology of different disease types that a paramedic does.” If there was an individual suffering a heart attack in one of the rural parts of the county, all the first responders and EMTs know CPR and how to control the airway. But even then a care provider with advanced life support skills is needed to either provide medications or use other methods to restart the heart.

Emergencies that require a timely response to save the patient — like a heart attack or stroke — can still result in a death no matter if a paramedic is on scene or not. But getting that level of provider there is critical to ensuring each patient has the best care possible in their time of need.

“When you have a witness cardiac arrest and CPR is started and you get advanced care there as quickly as you can, you know they had the best opportunity,” Halferty said. “And the family knows that, too,”