Working amid crash chaos
First responders try to create order out of the chaos when they arrive at crash scenes. Esther Ashby-Coventry reports in her final story on crash survivors and those who attend the scenes.
When alarms are activated Graeme Mould and Christine Horne’s lives switch to volunteer lifesavers, often racing to chaotic crash scenes.
Mould, a Geraldine business owner and the town’s chief fire officer, and Horne, a volunteer qualified ambulance officer, are both part of the local Fire and Emergency road crash rescue team and two of thousands who give up their time freely across New Zealand to assist in emergency situations.
‘‘It’s carnage,’’ Mould says of a crash scene.
‘‘Everyone who drives doesn’t expect it to happen to them. There’s no rhyme and reason, it’s random.’’
Horne said dealing with car crashes was common and the 100kmh speed limit on many of the roads, as well as Geraldine being a tourist route, increased the risk of crashes.
‘‘I don’t think most people have any idea what it is like to be in an accident,’’ she says.
Mould, who joined the fire service in the 1980s, says his job on arriving at a crash scene is to create order out of chaos.
Saving life was the first priority so a plan had to be made quickly on how best to extricate a patient from a vehicle, by removing the vehicle from around the patient using the latest hydraulic rescue tools.
Ensuring live powerlines are turned off, the battery of a car is disconnected, checking for fuel spillage, making sure those extricating a patient will not deploy an airbag that has not already deployed were all considerations when trying to prepare a patient to be moved. Their spine and head alignment, any injured limbs and bleeding had to be managed by St John who would give the go ahead for movement.
‘‘Doing the wrong thing could kill a patient.’’
Horne said ‘‘we can’t always save everyone but we do the absolute best with the skills we have. Being calm in those conditions goes a long way to help a patient’’.
Responders never knew what they were going to find at a scene. At some jobs Horne said they would expect there to be no survivors and yet people were uninjured, conversely someone may be deceased in a nose to tail in a 50kmh area. It all depended on the mechanism of the injury.
‘‘It’s a really hard thing – every person is loved by someone. But the deceased is not going home.’’
Mould said if a deceased person had to be extricated then he would try and protect as much of the crew as possible from it.
‘‘The firemen are normal people doing an extraordinary job.’’
Horne said that because Geraldine is such a small rural town it’s inevitable that responders will come across a family member or friend at an accident scene.
‘‘Not being there for family and friends [though] is worse than being there.’’
For Horne it was a medical event that inspired her to become part of St John. She did not know what to do when her father suffered a medical event and watched helplessly as St John medics tended him. She never wanted to be in that position again so joined St John as a volunteer first responder. That was in 2004.
‘‘If I can be comforting and professional to make a person’s journey slightly better I’m pleased to be there to help.’’
Horne said first responders rarely hear about what happens to a patient once they have done their job, but one crash scene where a car had rolled was different.
‘‘It was upside down with the fence post inside the car. The patient was lying in the roof, conscious, distressed and sore in many places. I climbed in the car to reassure and tend to injuries. The fire brigade cut the car away from the patient using all their hydraulic and stabilising techniques. Finding among all the injuries a sore neck, all skills and reassurance is required to protect the spine as no X-rays are available on scene to determine the extent of injury so managing it as the worst case is vital. After careful controlled extrication as an ambulance and fire team we got the patient to the ambulance and medical care.’’
A Burwood Hospital surgeon later sent a letter thanking the first responders for extricating the car accident survivor in such a way. It was the only reason the person would be able to walk again, he wrote. The person had three neck fractures and any wrong movement could have caused irreparable damage.
‘‘It was so encouraging to know we made such a difference to that person’s life.’’