EMERGENCY RESCUE

What happens when there's an emergency call?
What is trauma? How do experts in emergency medicine treat trauma? 
					        Peggy learns about emergency 
    					        medicine when she accompanies
   					        paramedics on a rescue mission.

Contents

Insights & Connections
Vocabulary
Resources
Main Activity
Try This

INSIGHTS

Medical personnel call it trauma. Lay people call it injury. Regardless of the term used, it represents the leading cause of death for people under the age of 44.

Every six minutes, an American dies from an injury. Automobile accidents are the leading cause, with alcohol a frequent contributing factor. Other major causes include guns, fire, falls, and drowning.

The medical response to trauma often begins with a call to 911, the emergency response phone system. When a caller reports an accident to 911 dispatchers, specially trained paramedics or mobile emergency medical technicians (EMTs) rush to the scene of the injury.

Paramedics stabilize and transport the victim to the hospital as quickly and safely as possible. Because the brain cannot be deprived of oxygen or blood flow for even a couple minutes, the EMT first attends to the ABCs (airway, breathing, and circulation). Blood, secretions, false teeth, food, vomit, or other obstructions in the victim's airway must be cleared first. If the patient is not breathing adequately, technicians perform artificial respiration. They then check pulse and blood pressure to see if circulation is adequate. Because many trauma victims suffer blood loss, technicians usually put an intravenous (IV) line into the patient's vein and infuse it with a solution of salt water to help prevent shock.

To avoid additional injury on the way to the hospital, paramedics splint or immobilize broken or potentially broken bones. Victims who remain alert can help them by telling them if something hurts. The unconscious victim--who likely has suffered a head injury--requires special care so the neck and spine are protected from irreversible injury.

In regions well prepared to handle accident victims, the police, paramedics, and hospital personnel work in close cooperation. Often a helicopter speeds the victim to the trauma center.

At the hospital, a trauma team of emergency medicine physicians, anesthesiologists, surgeons, and nurses takes over. They evaluate the patient, do another check of the ABCs, and then proceed with the necessary diagnostic and treatment measures.

Studies show that with good trauma systems in place, a city's trauma death rate tends to drop dramatically.

CONNECTIONS

  1. Trauma systems vary. Some communities have no systems at all. Describe the problems this kind of scattered access creates.
  2. Emergency technicians and physicians never know what kind of illness or injury the next patient will have. What can they do to be prepared for this?
  3. Have you ever called a rescue service? What happened?

RESOURCES

Additional sources of information

LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION!

Create a documentary on emergency services in your community.


Main Activity

Produce a video about emergency services available in your area. Learn about the
roles that various emergency personnel play in trauma response, and share the
information you have gained with other students. (You can modify this activity to
do oral reports and skits if no video equipment is available.)


Materials 




    

  1.  Pair off into four teams, each with a home video camera to record different
parts of the story of emergency services.


  2.  The first team will research the availability of a 911 emergency response
phone number in this area and write a script detailing when or when not to use
it. Videotape a brief skit based on that script.


  3.  The second team will contact some local paramedics and arrange to do a video
interview either at the firehouse or the school. Don't forget to ask questions
about training and other requirements for becoming a paramedic.


  4.  The third team will set up a tour of your local hospital's emergency room.
With the help of an emergency room nurse or physician, show the important ER
equipment and describe each item's function.


  5.   The fourth team will put all of the elements of the video together and show
it to the class.




Questions 

    

  1.  If one part of the emergency response system was missing, what would
happen to the rest of the system? 

  2.  Should this country have a national
emergency response system? Why? What would it change?







 Invite a local paramedic to your class to talk about training,
everyday routines, and unforgettable experiences.



  Many trauma situations start as automobile accidents. Identify and
discuss the risk factors that may contribute to the accident and the safety
measures that might prevent severe injury if a car accident happens.



 Invite a CPR teacher in and learn all the basics of this lifesaving
technique. Take the test and become certified in CPR.



 Experts say one of the biggest problems with the 911 number is that
people who have no real emergency misuse it. Come up with ten instances when you
should call 911 and ten instances when you should not.



 Watch the television program "911." Discuss how different elements of
the emergency response system were used in each situation.
 





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Newton's Apple is a production of KTCA Twin Cities Public Television.

Made possible by a grant from 3M.

Educational materials developed with the National Science Teachers 
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