Generous Donation Helped Fund Pediatric Education in Dallas

     Thanks to the Crystal Charity Ball-a Dallas, TX, philanthropic organization-Dallas-area EMS and adult facilities providers are learning to deal more comfortably with oft-dreaded pediatric calls.

     "In 2004, the ladies who organize the Crystal Charity Ball asked us to give them a proposal for something we would like to have them fund," explains Debra Brown, RN, director of trauma and transport services for Children's Medical Center Dallas. "So one of our vice presidents and our trauma medical director at the time developed a comprehensive program to provide initial and ongoing pediatric education for EMS providers, as well as adult healthcare facilities in the Dallas County area, to address a gap in what we have seen as far as providing care to children."

     With a generous donation of more than $1.4 million, the Pediatric Emergency Services Network was established to provide free education to EMS providers through the Allied Health Program at UT Southwestern, as well as funding some ad hoc programs like the neonatal resuscitation program, PALS, ACLS, ATLS and others, says Brown. The network includes Baylor University Medical Center, Methodist Health System, Parkland Health & Hospital System, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas and Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas.

     "One of the reasons we received the funding is due to our Level I trauma center status, which we just recently attained," says Brown. "It really put us out there as a leader in education and trauma care.

     "Some of the gaps that we identified in providing care to children are early recognition of respiratory problems, like asthma, and what to do when EMS providers get to the scene; early treatment and transfer of traumatically injured patients; and what to do with those little guys in general," Brown adds. "A lot of EMS providers and hospital providers at the adult facilities are not comfortable taking care of children. Our goal is to help make them a little more comfortable in doing some of the invasive procedures like intubating or putting in IVs."

     The donation and training couldn't be more timely.

     "The training is not mandatory per se for Dallas County providers, but as of September, EMS providers are required to have a pediatric component to their continuing education requirement for re-licensing," says Brown, "and this will help them get that component, which is now required by law."

     Although the program is just in the beginning stages and is currently focused primarily on Dallas County providers, it will eventually be rolled out to the EMS community in general, says Brown. She invites anyone who is interested in more information about the training program to contact her at: debrow@childrens.com.

In other EMS News

Test May Tell When CPR Will Be Futile
Canadian researchers say a simple three-part test can tell EMS providers when CPR will be futile and it's time to stop resuscitative measures in cases of out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrest.

     According to a study in the August 3 New England Journal of Medicine, efforts can be safely terminated when 1) there's no return of spontaneous circulation, 2) no AED shocks are administered and 3) the arrest is not witnessed by emergency medical personnel. Without meeting these three criteria, the study's authors say, patients should be transported as normal.

     Of 776 patients studied for whom the criteria recommended termination, just four (0.5%) survived. The test had a positive predictive value for death of 99.5% when termination was recommended.-New England Journal of Medicine

AED Recall Rate >20%, Study Finds
In the last decade, Harvard researchers have found, more than one in five AEDs was recalled due to potential malfunction, and at least 370 deaths have been associated with devices that failed.

     Between 1996-2005, investigators discovered, 21.2% of AEDs distributed during the period were recalled, most commonly because of electrical or software problems.

     "AED malfunctions do occur occasionally," the authors concluded in the Journal of the American Medical Association, "although the number of observed malfunctions is small compared with the number of lives saved by these important devices... Efforts should be directed at developing a reliable system to locate and repair potentially defective devices in a timely fashion.-JAMA

Paulison: FEMA Will Be Ready
     In a major change of approach, FEMA director R. David Paulison announced in August that the agency is abandoning the response model by which it moved into local disaster areas only after local and state authorities became overwhelmed.

     Unlike last hurricane season, Paulison said, "FEMA is going to be ready to respond. We are literally light years ahead of where we were last year. We're not necessarily where we want to be, but I don't ever want to say we're where we want to be."

     As the Atlantic hurricane season entered its prime stretch, Paulison said FEMA is "heavily involved" in planning in Louisiana, which is still recovering from last year's devastation. The agency is active in such areas as developing evacuation plans and identifying shelters and how to staff them.-Newsday

Study Measures Lung-Function Loss After WTC
     Firefighters who worked at Ground Zero following the attacks of 9/11 have lost the equivalent of 12 years' worth of lung capacity, a new study concluded.

     New York lung specialists examined the lung function of more than 12,000 city firefighters and other rescue workers who served at the World Trade Center site. Measuring the subjects' forced expiratory volume, they found that some lost as much as 372 milliliters. By comparison, average people lose an average of 30 milliliters a year, and smokers lose 70.

     Many of the firefighters, the authors concluded, could suffer from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease caused by a narrowing of the lung's airways.

     More than 500 members of Uniformed Fire Officers Association Local 854 and Uniformed Firefighters Association Local 94 have received mandatory retirements due to 9/11-related lung problems, according to the International Association of Fire Fighters, and at least 200 more have been ruled permanently disabled by FDNY doctors, though the city, the IAFF says, won't let them retire, instead relegating them to light duty.

     The study was published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.-IAFF

Willing To Assist In An Airborne Emergency?
     EMS and other emergency personnel who fly can register confidentially with their airlines to assist flight crews in an emergency under a new program announced by the Transportation Security Administration.

     The program, called Volunteer for Safe Skies, will allow EMS, fire and police fliers to use their skills if something-in the case of EMS, a medical emergency-happens during a flight.

     Airlines will develop their own processes for implementing the program, and the TSA will compile those rules and provide them to public-safety departments.-Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

NAEMT: Utilize Your Restraints
     The National Association of EMTs has adopted a position statement "strongly advocat[ing] the use of available safety restraint systems to prevent injury" for occupants of emergency-response vehicles.

     The organization also came out in favor of creating a national database to track injuries to EMS providers, including those from vehicle crashes, and "significant" research to determine appropriate restraint and protection systems for occupants of EMS vehicles.-NAEMT