SERT grads test new skills

Published 3:52 am Thursday, May 21, 2009

By By JOHN EBY / Dowagiac Daily News
It was chaotic Wednesday as 25 Student Emergency Response Team (SERT) members tried to cram into Linda O'Keefe's life skills kitchen in response to a mock explosion. Chaotic, like a real trauma scene.
Problem is, according to the scenario, Dowagiac police and fire departments are tied up on a factory blaze on the other side of town. They cannot break anyone loose to come help. Somebody in life skills class theoretically "put something bad into a project," causing an oven to explode and setting off a "chain reaction" rupturing gas lines.
The fire has been contained, but there are victims who need attention and they must tread carefully entering such a scene due to possible hazardous materials while formulating "defense strategies" of how to attack the scene, the capabilities of fire extinguishers, resources to stop uncontrolled bleeding, triage priorities and where to establish a safe zone for the injured.
Head to toe assessments will establish who they can help and who they can't. And whether to move those with head, neck or spinal injuries.
What is available to use for bandaging that is antiseptic enough to not further aggravate wounds?
At the incident commend center in the Union High School media center, where SERT members wait with backpacks containing hard hats, gloves and flashlights, four team leaders are selected and issued radios.
They are encouraged to partner up for a systematic and thorough search. They must decide how to mark the area searched so it can be documented later. They will put into action extrication techniques they learned in class.
While it's not a real emergency, seeing their friends made up with disfiguring injuries and bathed in fake blood gives it an unsettling psychological impact and leaves them with the mental exhaustion which follows an adrenaline rush.
After being photographed for identification cards they will be issued, the team moves out down the hall to the other side of the school.
"One thing I did notice is that the girl who had her foot in her hand kept her foot with her," Capt. Mike Mattix of the Dowagiac Fire Department observes afterward as they deconstruct the disaster exercise.
Kara Roberts bagged the foot in ice for the possibility of reattachment.
"We had too many rescuers," in the assessment of Elizabeth Phillips, one of four team leaders. "We kept getting in each other's way."
Students suggest more scenarios – perhaps one in the dark gymnasium.
The faux blast gave students an opportunity to practice skills they developed over the past two months in the SERT training as part of their life skills class.
The class is a collaborative effort between Dowagiac Union Schools, Dowagiac Department of Public Safety, which includes the Police Department and Fire Department, and Woodlands Behavioral Healthcare Network in Cassopolis.
DUHS was the second school in Michigan to join SERT, a nationwide offshoot of CERT, Community Emergency Response Team, a segment of AmeriCorps.
Teen SERT members are given the same basic training as CERT members, but their primary focus is the school they attend. SERT members were invited to join CERT for Monday's Memorial Day parade.
Training is given in subjects such as search and rescue, disaster medical, fire safety, disaster psychology and terrorism.
Analysis of response to large-scale emergency situations such as Hurricane Katrina in the summer of 2005, revealed the need for everyone to have basic emergency preparedness and response skills. This program educates students on these basic skills.
The object is to be prepared wherever you are when disaster strikes – at school, home, extra-curricular activities or traveling.
Instructors include: Linda O'Keefe, who was recently honored with one of WNDU's three regional educational excellence awards in recognition of former student Jessica Worthington and SERT graduate Larry Tartt saving lives; school nurse Eva Hecht; Woodlands CEO Kathy Boes; Dowagiac Police Officers Dan Wiggins and Jerid Ostrom; DPS Executive Secretary Patty Klug; and Fire Department Capts. Guy Evans and Mattix.
Wiggins and Public Safety Director Tom Atkinson observed the two-hour graduation exercise.
Besides the chaos, "There was a little bit of freelancing going on," Mattix said. "Going out and doing things all by yourself without getting assigned to it. Team leaders, remember, we're not blaming anybody, we're critiquing to fix problems. You need to get control of your team. Triage team, you need to set up the area by priority. Give people assignments and have them carry them out."
Injured were evacuated to the band room, while the choir room doubled as the morgue.
As Wiggins reminded, casualties aren't rescued, they're recovered.
"Another thing I noticed," Mattix continues, "is you did a lot of carrying of the victims. Were there things in here you could have used? Don't be afraid to use things you find on the scene. Don't think that because we're the so-called 'professional rescuers' that we don't make mistakes. We do the same thing we're doing now. After a large incident, after it's all said and done, we sit down and critique what we did right and what we did wrong. You did a lot of things right. You got people out and got them to safe areas. There's always a lot of chaos on an incident scene. We strive to not make more chaos than is already there."
When students asked Klug if there were bandages or towels, her standard response is, "Technically, we're not here yet. This is your school. What can you find to help? That's something you learn as you go along. Yours was the reaction anyone would have initially."
Klug stressed donning gloves "for your own safety. I saw a couple moving dead victims without gloves. You have to protect yourself as well as rush in. Once you had people in the (band) room, they were still on chairs. You don't want to move them any more than you have to, but they might be better in a flat position."
Drama students such as Tyler Hall and Jessica Hargett unnerved some of their friends with their thrashing and moaning, coupled with visuals of bolts through necks, plastic blood collars and burns.
Tyler especially acted up after one of his rescuers inadvertently blurted out within earshot that he was probably going to die.
"The team that came in to check utilities should have checked the gas ranges in the kitchen," said Klug. Mike Rijos assured her they did.
Klug, formerly of the sheriff's office and Council on Aging, offered a few suggestions, such as using the life skills classroom ironing board and a wheeled utility cart as stretchers.
Also, since girls tend to dress in layers, "If you need to, it may not be the most sanitary, but if you have nothing else available and have on a sweatshirt or two knit tops, take one off to use as bandages."
In their backpacks, SERT members build disaster supply kits to accompany them in their vehicles. Wiggins tells them his also contains power bars, beef jerky and extra socks because "wet feet are unhappy feet."
Backpack contents are only limited by size and imagination.
Wiggins, Mattix and Klug impart life lessons along with formal SERT classroom instruction.
Wiggins said police officers like to say, "It could have been worse. It could have been me" to remind themselves to focus on the task at hand and not be distracted by injuries – especially if it's someone they know.
"Whatever you do, you have to be able to sleep with it at night," he said of such aspects as fibbing to reassure a dying person that they're going to be okay.
Death never used to bother him until he had children of his own.
It also takes thick skin to get yelled at by someone you're risking your life to help.
Wiggins said when police or firefighters laugh at the scene of a tragedy it looks inappropriate, but dark humor is their coping mechanism with being exposed on a daily basis to trauma at a level most people seldom if ever encounter.
Mattix confided the demons a house fire on Orchard Street which killed two young brothers unleashed in him. Since he lives a block away, he was first on the scene and found the victims. Grief didn't hit him right away, but four months later struck him out of nowhere. He broke out in a cold sweat and had to sit down, so he sought counseling.
We all need help at some point in our lives, Klug added, and something such as counseling is a tool to continue being healthy – not a sign of weakness. Weakness is to avoid using services that are available.
Wiggins recalled that when he was a Dowagiac student he wanted to be a teacher until the night he participated in the police ride-along for law class. Nothing noteworthy happened on that shift in a squad car, but the experience nevertheless altered the path of his life.
"People are funny creatures" Wiggins says of the lighter aspects of a patrolman's job.
Public service is something they're driven to because they could earn more money in the private sector.