From Sudden Infant Death Syndrome to drug overdose and post-traumatic stress disorder, experts in the medical field covered the life-threatening situations that might arise for Northwest Indiana emergency medical technicians and paramedics at Monday’s first-ever Regional EMS Conference.
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More than 140 EMS professionals attended the conference in Merrillville, which was designed to assist them in obtaining continuing education credits. The event, which was put on by Prompt Ambulandce, coincided with National EMS Week.
The University of Chicago’s Aeromedical Network helicopter even flew in for an appearance, landing in the Avalon Manor parking lot right before lunch.
Jon Johnson, a critical care paradmedic with Prompt, said typically continuing education occurs through programs offered by Prompt, local hospitals, online, and even just researching a topic of interest online.
“It think (the conference is) well organized,” Johnson said. “There’s still a lot we can learn about. It never stops; it’s constant.”
Indiana is in the top 10 — and many times in the top 5 — nationally in SIDS deaths, said Christina Lopez, who is a neonatal clinical specialist at Methodist Hospitals.
“This is what we’re dealing with,” Lopez said. “We have tired parents, so we just try to push education as much as we can. Suffocation is something we can control, by emphasizing that babies should only sleep on their backs.”
Also, a baby’s crib or bassinet should “look like a baby jail,” meaning no blankets, bumpers, or toys, Lopez said.
Lopez also discussed recognizing the signs of Shaken Baby Syndrome, which is the most common cause of child abuse death. Symptoms include lethargy, vomiting, and lack of vocalizing.
“Tossing a baby in the air doesn’t cause Shaken Baby Syndrome, but if you miss the catch, a fall can cause it,” Lopez said. “More than likely it’s usually people who know the baby, but it’s not always bad intent.”
Jake Messing, who is the director of St. Catherine Hospital’s Behavioral Health Services, detailed his experiences in working with EMTs and paramedics. Many encounter very disturbing situations in their jobs. He recalled riding along with Gary EMS on a midnight shift one summer night, when they didn’t even have time to stop for a bathroom break.
“Afterward, an EMT came to me and he was upset because that night they had picked up a kid with cigarette burns all of over his body,” Messing said. “He felt anger and wanted to hurt the person who did that, which is understandable.
“Once we turn on the response, it’s not so easy to turn it off.”
Messing said there are good and bad ways to cope. While alcohol can help someone forget about a traumatic event for a while, the effect wears off and the effects of the event — nightmares, flashbacks, twitchiness — can come back worse than ever.
“Ignoring it doesn’t work, but some things really do work,” Messing said. He said talking about the situation — especially with people who shared the experience — can really help, alongside exercise, eating well and not fighting flashbacks.
Porter Starke’s Director of Prevention and Education Aaron Kochar addressed the epidemic of opioid abuse, both nationally and locally. Despite the perception that most opioid abusers use heroin on the street, 70 percent of opioid overdoses involved prescription drugs, like Vicodin, OxyContin and Hydrocodone.
Teens, especially, can gain access to such potent drugs from their parents’ medicine cabinets and it can lead them into heroin abuses, Kochar said. The U.S. is awash in prescription opiates, with 207 million prescriptions written in 2013 — which amounts to about 6 billion pills, Kochar said.
In 2012, Lake County reported 48 deaths from opiates, while Porter County counted 13 heroin deaths in 2013. Porter-Starke has seen a significant uptick in the number of people enrolled in its opioid treatment program — from 411 in 2011 to 640 in 2013.
“Lethal drug overdose is the leading cause of accidental death in the United States and Indiana,” Kochar said. “And 39 percent of those are opioids.”
Contact Christin Nance Lazerus at [email protected]
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