MONROE, CT — Families toured the Monroe Volunteer Emergency Medical Service headquarters at 54 Jockey Hollow Road, spoke with the organization’s members and health care professionals, and got to see the inside an ambulance during an open house on Saturday.
“I’ve never been in an ambulance before,” said Rachna Kalaria of Monroe, who attended the event with her husband, Veerat and their two daughters, Kashvi, 13, and Saanvi, 10. “I love it all. Everyone was super nice. Our older daughter is interested in volunteering.”
The EMS classroom had displays with representatives from Bridgeport Hospital and St. Vincent’s Medical Center, activity books on safety for children, medical information and signups for upcoming Stop the Bleed and CPR classes.
Shawn Smith, an emergency medical technician (EMT), showed visitors the back of an ambulance in one of the garage bays.
The Kalarias seemed to be impressed when Smith told them Monroe’s EMS volunteers respond to around 1,800 incidents a year, with anything from medical calls to motor vehicle crashes.
“Some days, you’ll do nothing over an eight-hour-shift and others you’ll respond to four calls,” Smith said.
Smith displayed the equipment in back of the ambulance, including an oxygen tank, and explained how two people make up a crew.
“Sometimes there will be two people back here, but for the most part, it’s one person doing all the work and you’ll have one person driving, and that’s your crew,” he said.
Smith said a crew can consist of an EMR (emergency medical responder) and an EMT, two EMTs or an EMT and a medic.
“We didn’t know what to expect,” Veerat said. “We didn’t know they would educate us on what they do here.”
Kashvi said the experience “definitely” increased her motivation to join the EMS one day, adding she enjoyed seeing the inside of the ambulance, learning about the programs and how to assist with wheelchairs and gurneys.
Kashvi signed up for the Stop the Bleed and CPR courses.
Chris Sullivan, the chairman for EMT training, said the course to become an EMT can be taken as early as age 15, so long as students are 16 by the time it ends.
For information on upcoming EMS classes, send an email to training@monroevems.net.
Officials visit
In addition to families, Monroe EMS also welcomed local dignitaries to its open house, including First Selectman Terry Rooney, Town Councilwoman Dona-Lyn Wales, Town Councilman Jason Maur and State Sen. Jason Perillo, R-21st, who has an extensive EMS background.
The event offered community education from the EMS and its hospital partners and included sandwiches and an ice cream truck in the parking lot.
Inside the classroom, Bella Medaris and Yen Sheehan, two EMTs on the MVEMS executive board, gave Chase Ravano, 9, of Monroe, an activity book with coloring and word searches centered around public safety.
Chase was accompanied by his parents, Josh and Providence, his brother, Aiden, 7, and sister Giada, 5.
“My wife saw it on Facebook,” Josh said of how his family learned about the open house. “It’s a good way to expose the kids to EMS type of stuff. Maybe it’s something they can do when they’re older.”
“This is awesome,” said Providence, who is a para-educator at Stepney Elementary School. “It’s really nice to learn all this stuff, especially with the kids.”
The table included activity books and information cards for Alert! K.I.D.S. (Kids Identification Data System), a program offered by Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital.
The card can be attached to a child-safety seat so, in the event of a car crash, medical personnel will have important information a parent may not be able to provide under the circumstances, such as the child’s name, date of birth, contact and medical information.
Shannon Spaulding, EMS program manager for Hartford HealthCare-St. Vincents, had medical information pamphlets at her table, including the symptoms of a stroke and a sheet on St. Vincent’s Advanced Thrombectomy-Capable Stroke Center Certification.
Spaulding also offered medical data cards and outlet covers, among the items visitors could take home.
Another table was manned by Leigh Goodman, NRP, regional EMS manager for Yale New Haven Health-Bridgeport Hospital, and Daryn Brauner, an RN from the hospital.
Goodman said Bridgeport Hospital started a new EMS blood transfusion program, providing training for EMTs to give blood transfusions in the ambulance to patients with life-threatening blood loss.
The two women also promoted Bridgeport Hospital’s Burn Center and offered a variety of pamphlets on safety and injury prevention, including everything from safe sleeping habits for babies to wearing a proper-fitting bicycle helmet.
One sheet showed information on a fundraiser to send children suffering from severe burn injuries to The Arthur C. Luf Children’s Burn Camp, where they can have fun with other children. The 15th annual Ross Jenacaro Car Show is scheduled to be held at Enterprise Corporate Towers, 4 Corporate Drive in Shelton, Sunday, June 22.
Lisa Pane, the administrator for MVEMS, stood by a display for its new fall prevention program.
“We have a lot of ambulance calls for falls,” she said, adding there were 365 calls involving falls last year.
In 69 medical alarm activations, in which someone presses their Life Alert button, Pane estimates 25 percent of the time it is for falls.
Last year, Monroe EMS received 39 public assistance calls from people in need of help getting up and being moving somewhere in their house after a fall, in which they were not hurt.
Pane’s display showed a national statistic that an estimated one-in-four older adults fall each year. Thirty-percent of older adults will die within a year from falling and breaking a hip, according to another statistic.
The EMS fall prevention program arranges home visits from experts, who can identify risks factors and why some people suffer repeated falls.
“We want them to stay independent,” Pane said of older residents. “We want them to be in their home and we want them to be safe.”
“I’m really thrilled,” Monroe EMS Chief Craig Rosenberg said of the turnout to the open house, adding it supports their mission of neighbors helping neighbors. “I’m really proud of our team and would like to have those who showed interest in joining us reach out. It’s an amazing team doing amazing work.”
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