Beach Patrol First Responders

Thirty some summers ago I worked as a seasonal EMT for the Town of Ocean City Maryland.

Back then the fire station at 102 Dorchester Street had the dispatch office. Beach Patrol headquarters was about two blocks south.

We first knew of an emergency on the beach when a powder blue Ford Pinto would rush from the Beach Patrol headquarters, with a small blinking red light on the roof and a tinny mechanical siren screaming from the left front fender.

Time would stretch to a quarter hour or longer before the ambulance received a request for service. Even with a room full of scanners and direct telephone lines at the fire station, we had no idea what was happening on the beachfront, since the beach patrol used semaphore flags.

Last Friday (August 17, 2007) , Maryland Coast Dispatch staff writer Ali Baker recounts a Fourth of July cardiac arrest on the beach with a profoundly different result. It shows the value of prompt first response within an interagency plan.

This link takes you to the article: AEDs Saving Lives On Ocean City Beach

There are three important parts to this story:

• a donation
• expanded first responder role
• city-wide radio interoperability

The family of Roger L. Herrell donated $6000 to the Beach Patrol to purchase four automatic external defibrillators. This was in appreciation for the efforts of the Beach Patrol in the rescue attempt for Mr. Herrell in 1999.

There are 12 Beach Patrol AEDs distributed to the four patrol areas that make up the 10.5 miles of beachfront and carried on the all-terrain quad response vehicles.

The Ocean City Beach Patrol assists about 2,500 bathers in distress each season. Many of the surf rescues are cardiac emergencies caused by the bather struggling against the rip tide of the current.

In 2006, the Beach Patrol received the "Outstanding EMS Program Award" from the Maryland Institute for Emergency Medical Service Systems.

From the MIEMSS award narrative:

Like other first responders, the Beach Patrol often have to resuscitate people with CPR or the AED. Each of the 5 cardiac arrests that occurred on the beach or in the ocean last summer was successfully resuscitated.

In addition, last summer the Ocean City Beach Patrol gave first aid for 1,567 minor injuries; they worked with Ocean City Fire/EMS to treat 126 individuals who did not have life-threatening injuries but who required a paramedic response, and 105 patients with life-threatening injuries (mostly cervical spine injuries caused by body surfing or shallow water diving).

Cervical spine injuries require careful stabilization and tricky extraction from the ocean, as waves continue crashing. In addition, environmental conditions are often conducive to spinal injuries, resulting in several patients with spinal cord injuries having to be rescued in quick succession.

The Ocean City Beach Patrol has developed a technique for stabilizing and removing patients from the surf when spinal cord injuries are suspected. This technique was recently accepted as a state standard of care by MIEMSS, and the Beach Patrol has developed a video with MIEMSS to help train others in the techniques.

The third factor is a carefully grown 800 MHz trunked radio system that started in 1993.

Installed five miles inland for protection from hurricanes, the system placed all city agencies on one digital radio system. The system expanded in 2000 to include an emergency talk channel (Channel 9). Channel 9 is monitored every hour of every day by 911 dispatchers.

One of the five resuscitations in 2005 shows the value of radio interoperability. Beach Patrol Sergeant Tim Uebell was not on duty, but heard the dispatch for a person collapsed on the boardwalk on the EMS channel. Just a few blocks away, Sergeant Uebell was first to arrive and used one of the Herrell purchased AEDs to make a difference.

• Ocean City Beach Patrol: http://oceancitymd.gov/Recreation_and_Parks/Beach_Patrol/
• Ocean City VFD: http://www.ocvfc.com/index.cfm
• Ocean City Emergency Services Fire-EMS: http://www.ocmdemergency.com/fire-ems.htm

Related: June 06, 2011: da’ Shore has a great Memorial Day flush

Mike "FossilMedic" Ward

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• da’ Shore has a great Memorial Day flush – June 6, 2011
• Work at ‘da Shore – January 5, 2011
• London Ambulance Service goes back to manual call taking – June 8, 2011
• Can Emergency Services Lean on a Manufacturing Model? – February 7, 2012