TIERS Awarded $10,000 Grant (from Page 1)
“This is a very timely grant for our service,” Roland “Rolly” Churchill, TIERS Director. “As a non-profit, we struggle each and every day to make ends meet, and to receive this grant to assist us in acquiring these devices is a great Christmas present for staff and volunteers, and the patients who will benefit from the best in emergency care.”
Electronic capnography devices measure the amount of carbon dioxide exhaled when the patient has a breathing tube in their trachea during a respiratory or cardiac emergency. This verifies the position of the tube and warns a paramedic if the tube changes position, which can lead to a patient’s death. A 2005 study showed zero percent error in tube placement monitoring using capnography.
Capnography is also being used by paramedics to monitor patients--a sudden drop in exhaled CO2 may indicate the patient has lost pulses and CPR may need to be initiated—or a rise in the level may mean of return of a patient’s pulse. “They are an excellent diagnostic tool for the field paramedic”, says Churchill. “It can be a ‘real time’ indicator to warn us that we need to take action to stop a developing crisis.”
Studies in the effectiveness of CPR show that as a rescuer doing CPR tires, the patient's expired CO2 level falls, and then rises when a fresh rescuer takes over.
TIERS is the 911 ambulance service provider for the towns of Orleans and Clayton in the river district of Jefferson County and recently received recognition from the NYS Department of Health as “2008 EMS Agency of the Year.” The service will respond to over 1,100 emergency calls in 2008. TIERS also provides multiple other health and wellness education programs for the community including CPR and AED training, first aid training, blood pressure clinics, babysitting safety classes, OHSA classes, Emergency Medical Technician certification courses, and safety programs for children and the elderly.
Originally from Gouverneur, Edward John Noble founded the Life Savers Candy Company in 1913, served as U.S. Undersecretary of Commerce and from 1943 to 1953 also owned the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) . Always connected to Northern New York, Noble owned Boldt Castle, the Thousand Island Club, and a summer residence on Wellesley Island. Three E.J. Noble hospitals were built, including what is now River Hospital in Alexandria Bay.
TIERS Honored By State EMS Leaders
(from Page 1)
Edward Wronski,
Director of The New York State Emergency Medical Services Bureau presented
Thousand Islands Emergency Rescue Service (TIERS) an award and plaque for being
named New York State's “2008 EMS Agency of the Year” at the NYS EMS Vital Signs
Conference awards banquet on October 4th in Buffalo.
The award which was based on the significant improvement in the EMS system for the St. Lawrence River communities in Jefferson County along with the health wellness and educational programs TIERS has implemented.
Thousand Islands Emergency Rescue Service (TIERS) was created from the consolidation of ambulance services once provided by Clayton and LaFargeville Fire Departments. The service responds to over 1,000 emergency calls annually. TIERS also provides multiple other health and wellness education programs for the community including CPR and AED training, first aid training, blood pressure clinics, babysitting safety classes, OSHA classes, Emergency Medical Technician certification courses, and safety programs for children and the elderly.
