9TH DISTRICT LIFESAVERS             “When the public calls the Coast Guard for help, they expect to receive a certain amount of care, just as they would if they called an ambulance.  We are essentially a floating ambulance.  This course is designed to give our people that training so they are able to respond to an emergency and transport the patient to next step.”             MKC Christopher Sekerka, a reservist assigned to Station Sturgeon Bay, is passionate emergency medical care.  When out of the Coast Guard uniform, he dons a firefighter and paramedic uniform for the city of Oshkosh, Wisc.   It is important to him that when boat crews are launched on a mission, they are armed with the best information and training to take care of themselves and the public, if needed.             “All the other services send out a corpsman with every mission they go on, so too does the Coast Guard.  Heaven forbid anything should happen, but if it does, our people should be prepared with the knowledge of how to help,” Sekerka said.             Thought the Coast Guard does not send out corpsmen, they are headed on the right course by training these lifesavers and sending them out with every mission the Coast Guard gets underway with.             Regulations with in the Coast Guard changed a couple of years ago, standardizing that boat crews must have a qualified person aboard to respond to medical emergencies.  It was determined the demand for the EMT course held in Petaluma, Calif., out weighed the supply.  A class, the Lifesaver Class, was developed in order to help with that demand.  Sekerka then took it upon himself to get members in the Sturgeon Bay area qualified as lifesavers, arming them with basic medical skills that may save a person’s life.              “The pilot class consisted of 15 people from three different units [in the area].  District [Headquarters in Cleveland] became aware of what we were doing and helped to get funding to train members from all over the district as lifesavers,” Sekerka said.             Of the four instructors, one is active duty Seaman James Hall stationed at Station Sturgeon Bay.  He went through Sekerka’s pilot class followed by the Navy EMT School in Great Lakes, Ill.  The other three instructors, MSTC Andrew Jaeger, BM3 Rich Bernhardt and Sekerka, are all reservists who work as paramedics in the community. For two years now, the chief and his instructors have been able to conduct a couple of classes a year, training one or two people from each unit from the Ninth District who can then take the training back to their respective units and share what they have learned in this course.             “We take the basics and build on them, on the principles of the standard boat crew qualifications.  Everyone is first aid and CPR certified when they arrive here.  They will then learn more advanced tactics of patient care,” Sekerka’s eyes grew wide in excitement, his speech a little quicker as he spoke about the fast-paced, aggressive course.             The students spend a week at the Air National Guard, Combat Readiness Training Center in Alpena, Mich.  For 40 hours, the students learn about airway management, medical and trauma emergencies, proper patient assessments and caring for the patient while transporting him or her to a higher level of care.              “The course has provided me with a greater sense of confidence that I felt I lacked before,” said first responder BM3 Jeremy Snyder of Station Cleveland Harbor.  “We went through a lot of skill exercises, a lot of practice.  We went over and over drills.  If there were any mistakes to have been made, they were made there.  I feel more comfortable knowing now that if the stations gets launched on a case and someone is going to require medical assistance, they will get the care they need.”             During the practical exercises, the class is split into groups of three or four working together as a team.  They discuss and physically perform the different medical emergency scenarios given to them by the instructors.  They are then able to think of situations they might come cross while on duty.              “The students get very creative when performing the drills,” Sekerka said.  “It’s great to see them really get involved in what they are doing.  They are able to have fun and learn at the same time.” In one group a student lies supine on the floor.  His right arm bandaged from the elbow up, completely hiding the forearm from view; a non-rebreather mask covering his nose and mouth.  MK1 Phil Blackwell of Station Wilmette Harbor looks as if he has been in a horrible accident. In this particular scenario, the first class had fallen overboard and the blades of the propellers had chopped off his arm.  His fellow crewmembers were able to successfully assess the situation and save his life.  They bandaged his arm to stop the bleeding on the simulated boat, apply oxygen and safely transport him for more advanced medical treatment.             “All of the scenarios we go through we create from real life situations we may come across, what may potentially happen on the job for us, and then put the skills learned here to use,” Blackwell said.  “This course has taught us how to keep a patient alive until more experienced medical personnel is able to take over.”             The students here are able to learn from professionals.  Three of the four course instructors are reservists and in their time away from the Coast Guard, are paramedics.  Being able to have instructors with real world medical experience allows the students to better understand not just the how of what they do, but why they are doing a particular dressing or assessment.             “Because we have the experience, we’ve been through these different situations we are able to share with the class from our everyday jobs, we are able to tell the students why we assess a situation before anything else, why we place a collar around someone’s neck and then support it on the backboard.  We are able pass our experience to our students, and I believe they are able to learn that much more.  We are not just telling them to do something, we are telling them why,” Sekerka said.             “There, 120. Did you see the needle jump?  Now you have the top number, the systolic number [of the blood pressure],” instructor Jaeger explains how to take vital signs of a patient to SN Christopher Rickett of Station Muskegon and SNBM Bradley Stuetz of Station Ludington, two students in the course.  Jaeger went on to explain that if the blood pressure is out of the normal perimeters, either too high or too low, there could be something else wrong with the patient.               “If a patient is suffering from a stomach ache, you don’t press right on the spot that hurts, do you?”  He asks his two attentive students.  Both answer no in unison.  “As a first responder, you would lightly press in the area of the pain.  It is important to figure out which quadrant the pain is in to then determine which organ is potentially hurt.”             At the end of the course, each student takes home a certificate that shows the hard work they have accomplished in the past week.  They know how to assess a situation when someone is hurt, how to treat him or her, and how to care for him or her.  These new lifesaver graduates are prepared and ready for the upcoming boating season on the Great Lakes, to be the Guardians of the Great Lakes. -uscg-

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