A workshop gives teams essential training and practice in rescuing victims from cold water.
By Deborah Sayer
Portland Press Herald (Maine)
Copyright 2007 Blethen Maine Newspapers, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
LEBANON, Maine — The temperature was near freezing as members of the Lebanon Volunteer Rescue Department slipped into the icy depths of Milton Three Ponds in Lebanon recently.
Their mission: Secure a victim who had fallen through the ice and pull him safely to shore, where emergency crews could give medical attention and then get him to a hospital.
On this day, the exercise was part of a planned cold-water rescue workshop. The session is one of three trainings offered annually to keep crews skilled in emergency response procedures.
Nearly 90 percent of the department’s 55-member, all-volunteer force participates in the training.
Instructors from the Lebanon Rescue Department and the Lebanon Fire Department led the four-hour event, which included classroom time on proper use of equipment and procedures and mock drills on rescue techniques for a variety of potentially life-threatening situations, including when victims panic in water.
Teamwork and communication are key in the trainings. Rescue personnel work in pairs and constantly talk with each other and their patients.
Rescue workers took turns acting as victim, in-water rescuer and land support crew. They donned cold-water survival suits and picked their way across the ice to reach their victims, securing them to tethered, floating baskets that were extracted by on-shore crews. Once there, crews checked on vital signs and responded with appropriate follow-up care.
The department typically handles real-life situations like these a few times a year.
For victims of cold-water emergencies, panic and shock are immediate, as the freezing water temperatures numb the body, putting severe strain on the heart and other organs and inducing hypothermia and the danger of cardiac arrest.
“Amnesia sets in at 94 degrees (body temperature), you become unconscious at 86 degrees, and death can occur at approximately 79 degrees.” said Assistant Rescue Chief Jason Cole.
Emergency crews are outfitted with cold-water survival suits made of a buoyant material that keep the rescuer warm, dry and afloat. Teams take turns in the water, remaining immersed for no more than 15 or 20 minutes.
The department purchased two of the suits, costing $900 each, with funds raised at bean suppers. It hopes to purchase two back-up suits this year.