 | ||||||
19703 Saums Road
Houston, Texas 77084
(281) 492-0560
For Emergencies Call 911
Scanner with all CCEMS Comm Center, Cy-Fair, Harris County,
and other dispatch center channels.
by Kevin Brost of Spring.
IN GOOD HANDS
You pull to the side of the road to let Westlake Fire Department pass and watch them zoom by with lights and sirens on as they respond to a 9-1-1 call for some type of emergency. Have you ever wondered what exactly the Westlake Fire Department medical crews do? The answer might surprise you on how high tech we are. Occasionally the job just requires immobilization of an injured limb and transportation to a nearby hospital, but often we are responding to life threatening situations in which a person needs immediate medical care.
What can Westlake Fire Department EMS crews do in these types of emergencies? Quite a bit.
Cardiac monitoring, administration of cardiac or respiratory medications, needles in the chest for
collapsed lung, or inserting oral or nasal breathing tubes are a few techniques that Westlake F.D.
paramedics utilize. The field of Para medicine continues to evolve with the addition of new techniques and equipment intended to save lives or minimize injury in the field. A few of these newer techniques and equipment include:
Bone Drill: The Westlake Fire Department rolled out this cutting edge technology in April of 2007. Care for a patient will often require a paramedic to administer fluids intravenously, but sometimes it’s impossible to find a vein suitable. The bone drill allows paramedics to tap directly into the bone to deliver fluid or intravenous medicine in a life threatening situation.
C-PAP: This technology is basically pressurized oxygen combined with a tight fitting mask. Difficulty breathing is a common emergency medical call with a person with Congestive Heart Failure (CHF). C-PAP can be used if administering oxygen the traditional way is not enough to ease breathing difficulties. C-PAP may also prevent the insertion of a breathing tube that could cause other complications and extend the time the patient is in the hospital.
Lucas Compression Tool: Westlake is the first Fire Department in Texas and the fourth in the nation to purchase the Lucas Compression tool. Although the tool has been used for a few years in Europe during CPR it had to be Texas Sized for Americans. Other larger departments in United States have had great results in their studies. This machine takes less than 40 seconds to put on a patient in cardiac arrest. Once in place it provides the proper rate and depth for compressions at the current American Heart Association standards. We have had GREAT results with four saves in the short time it has been in service.
Our Paramedics: Westlake has been fortunate to find some of the best paramedics in Texas. We require our paid paramedics to have a minimum of two years experience with a career department that responds to a minimum of 3,000 calls per year. Our paramedics come from the Houston Fire Dept., Fort Bend County EMS., and Humble Fire Dept. Our 24 paramedics have over 220 years of experience. You might ask why we require our paramedics to have this amount of experience. With all the new technology we want our paramedics to have a good foundation of experience and a way to continue to keep their skills honed. We compliment our paramedics with some of the finest and compassionate EMT-B and EMT-I volunteers.
What does this all mean to you? It means if you are one of the over 2,000 people treated each year by Westlake Fire Department you are in very capable hands!
