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Five men surround the body, with one starting an IV while another pumps away doing chest compressions. They move rhythmically in the midst of the chaos of a cardiac arrest, practicing the high performance CPR studied by the Medic One Foundation in which as little time as possible is wasted when not performing chest convulsions.
Interruptions between compressions of more than 10 seconds negatively impact the chances paramedics will be able to start a patient’s heart again.
Wires, syringes and other medical equipment soon cover the floor surrounding the high-tech dummy “patient,” which hovers between life and death.
Each year, dozens of men and women in King County enroll in the Medic One program — one of the most strenuous paramedic training programs in the country — and practice emergency medical situations in both the classroom and the field. The private, donation-driven training helps the Puget Sound area achieve better results outside of hospitals than most of the country.
“The end result is really the higher resuscitation rate that we experience in King County,” said Medic One Foundation Executive Director Jan Sprake. The county has a successful out-of-hospital resuscitation rate of around 57 percent compared to around 10 percent nationwide, according to Sprake and the American Heart Association.
Twenty-four firefighters from the Bellevue, Seattle, Redmond, Everett, Marysville, Shoreline, Lynnwood, Arlington, Bainbridge and Camano Islands departments, as well as King County Emergency Medical Services, make up this year’s class.
Firefighters are generally trained to respond to emergencies such as sudden cardiac arrest or provide CPR. More advanced emergency care needed outside hospital walls is primarily provided by Medic One-trained paramedics.
Such was the case with then-7-year-old Lily James, who nearly lost her foot in a 2009 boating accident near Mercer Island. Six years later, she is the leading scorer on her lacrosse team.
“The (Medic One) training was like second nature to a call like hers … It was just like we always run the medic unit. It was really incredible,” said Bellevue firefighter Phil Pierson, a member of the 20th Medic One class who responded to the accident that day.
Lily met with Pierson last month to present a $5,000 cash award to the Medic One Foundation. She received the award when she was honored in Boston as an American Society of Plastic Surgeons Patient of Courage this year.
Medic One trainees work six days a week during the intensive training program, either taking courses, practicing or going out into the field to respond to medical situations. They receive instruction from University of Washington physician faculty members, practice with state-of-the-art training aids and equipment and see on average 700 patients during their field training — more than three times the national average, according to the foundation.
“It’s intense because as soon as class is done, you’re trusted to go out and do it in the field,” Bellevue firefighter Scott Symons said. “We’ve seen others do these procedures for a long time, and now we get to do it.”
The Medic One Foundation and training program were started in 1969, when Dr. Leonard Cobb and then-Seattle Fire Chief Gordon Vickery wanted to test if, say, bringing an advanced life support system right into the home of a heart attack victim could improve the chances of survival.
The entire process takes 10 months. In all, the student paramedics will spend 2,700 hours training. For comparison, the national recommendation is 1,100 hours, according to the Medic One Foundation.
“It’s a lot of effort, so you’ve got to really want to do it. I wanted a new challenge, and three-fourths of the calls the fire department gets are medical-related, so this seemed like the best choice,” said firefighter Brandon Bothwell, who has been with the Bellevue Fire Department for 13 years.
Because the paramedic trainees cannot work during the rigorous process, the program relies on fundraising and private donations through their foundation to provide scholarships to the trainees and courses such as pediatric advanced life support, advanced cardiac life support and emergency drill training. However, the operating cost of Medic One paramedic services is covered by property taxes.
The foundation was hit hard by the recession, but has managed to continue their research and training programs.
“We would love to be at a point where we have a significant reserve, where a recession wouldn’t hurt us as much, but we’re just not there yet,” said Sprake.
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