Yah,I did.and having a pretty fair knowledge of the Town of Darien (google it to find out just how rich it is) and having worked in big city ERs my entire adult life I think my observations might be worthy of consideration.
It's good to hear of high school kids working hard and serving others but when I'm in cardiac tamponade after a car accident on I-95 I want an adult...a professional...scooping me off the Interstate.
Of course your mileage may differ.
but when I’m in cardiac tamponade after a car accident on I-95 I want an adult...a professional...scooping me off the Interstate.
So you would also have a problem with an 18 year old combat medic plugging up the six shrapnel holes in your chest while starting a large bore IV hoping he can get blood into you faster than it’s leaking out.
Or didn’t you read the part where they take the same courses and instruction, and have to pass the same test with a higher score than that ‘adult’ who just passed with a 70.
“but when I’m in cardiac tamponade after a car accident on I-95 I want an adult...a professional...scooping me off the Interstate.”
Darien has a contract with Stamford EMS to ensure you are properly scooped up.
When you are in cardiac tamponade, the paramedics will almost certainly be there as well as the local EMS.
I volunteer as an EMT, and we have cadets (teenaged EMTs). They are not allowed to ride after 11 pm - not sure how Darien manages the overnight hours. Like you, I would not like them to be handling a critical situation without adults and more years of experience, and in our town they are not allowed to respond without an adult EMT.
However, I can imagine certain training programs that would produce competent EMTs by the age of 18, if they start at 14. How old were combat medics in WWII?
And sometimes, book learning beats experience. The first femur fracture I ever saw was after I’d been a crew chief six years. Badly deformed. The person who was most up on using the Hare traction splint was an 18 y.o trainee who hadn’t even graduated yet but had drilled on the Hare the previous weekend.
Yes, I was the one who knew to keep the patient warm and insulated from the cold cellar floor, how to move him, to assess for shock, to call for extra resources, but the ER docs told us the Hare lined up the femur so well they left it on for twelve hours until the surgeon got there to pin it.
I’ve never seen cardiac tamponade in nine years. It wouldn’t surprise me if a cadet was on it (muffled heart sounds, narrowed pulse pressure, JVD) because that’s what the pre-pre-meds live for - the rare, dramatic and critical.