"We had an incident where a young lady fell on a skateboard at two o'clock in the morning last year," director of environmental health and safety and emergency management Jim White stated.
"It took a little over 20 minutes for the rescue team to arrive because they had to respond to a shooting in town, and this young girl had a concussion and was bleeding in the back of her head. We got her to the emergency room okay, but I feel that if we already have students and faculty trained, we can sustain [an emergency victim] medically until the ambulance arrives."
The incident White described was his inspiration for wanting to implement a Campus Emergency Response Team (CERT) at Longwood. "The Prince Edward Country Rescue Squad is an all-volunteer squad," said White. Prince Edward is usually the first to respond to incidents on campus and back up squads are called if Prince Edward is out of service.
"They are incredibly invaluable to us here on campus," White said. They respond to our emergencies and do a lot of work for us when we do Oktoberfest, Spring Weekend and other things on campus where there are large groups of people. They have helped me tremendously."
White also noted that in his three years at the university and working with Longwood University Police Chief Bob Beach, they have seen instances of medical emergencies happen and it took the rescue squad anywhere from 19 to 28 minutes to arrive. "And that is not their fault," said White. "[Being a volunteer squad], they may only have two people on shift during the daytime, and they're on the other side of the county or attending to another emergency. I feel that if we already have students and faculty here that have already been EMT [emergency medical technician] or first responder trained, we could have our own team on campus to respond to some of these calls."
White said the team would be a non-transport team, meaning they will not have the authority to transport emergency victims to the hospital. White also said Longwood would still depend on the Prince Edward County Rescue Squad and their expertise. The purpose of the emergency response team will be to maintain the health of emergency victims until the ambulance comes.
"Say we had a seizure or heart attack on campus," White explained. "Those require oxygen, and we don't have that here, so we'd have to wait for the rescue squad. If we did have oxygen here, and we have people capable of giving it … survivability rate of those categories rises tremendously, and that's all I'm after: to give first aid and be prepared to save lives until that rescue squad gets here."
White said that the team would have two components. The first would be a campus emergency response team who would inspect the building, facilities, and grounds on campus after disaster strikes, seeking out damage and potential threats to safety and blocking them off to keep people safe. Second, there would be a medical team who would tend to victims and their medical needs until the rescue squad arrived.
To make the idea of the team become a reality, White is currently working with the Division of Risk Management in Richmond and the Virginia Department of Health (VDH). The team will also need a medical director who must be a physician. White has also hired a fire engineer and EMT instructor, set to start at Longwood in November. "Hopefully [this means]," White said, "by this time next year, we'll be able to possibly provide students with that kind of training so that if they want to join [the team], we can provide that service to them."
Aided by the Division of Risk Management, White is currently looking at the liability and risk issues regarding the team. He is currently looking for student, faculty and staff members who are interested in joining the team. Those who are interested should contact Tiffany Dempsey in the Office of Environmental Health and Safety.
Once there is enough of an interest, White will set up an informational meeting to provide information on what the program will seek to do. White will then contact the VDH to fill out the necessary applications needed to install a non-transport emergency team here on campus as well as the Division of Risk Management to write up procedures for team members regarding how they will have to respond, act and provide care during emergencies. Once this is complete, the team would then set up shifts and begin their work.
"I hope we get a team," said White. "My wish is that we get a team trained and never have a case. You never know [what kind of medical attention] you'll need if it doesn't cross your mind. Yet when something relatively disastrous happens, it's a really good thing to have a person there that knows how to stop the bleeding, take charge and get you to the right place so you can live through it."
