Emergency Medical services: life-savers on call

On Sunday, Clarion Lights for a Cause and the Clarion Chamber and Development will honor county first responders with a 9/11 recognition service and a light show. Leading up to the service this week, we’re highlighting our Emergency Medical Services, or EMS branches, in the county. These highly trained Emergency Medical Technicians and other personnel have one goal: to reach and stabilize patients in medical emergencies so they can save lives.

The people

Four ambulance services operate in Wright County—Belmond’s hospital-based service, and Clarion, Eagle Grove, and Renwick’s city-based services (Renwick operates in three Wright County townships, though the town itself is outside of county borders). Clarion and Eagle Grove provide backup services for each other in case of multiple emergencies. As of last fall, there were 88 EMS providers in the county, though close to 30 are hospital nurses who don’t go out on all 911 calls.

What they do

Katie Schlichting, AEMT (Advanced Emergency Medical Technician) and ambulance supervisor for Iowa Specialty Hospital – Belmond, said the job varies from day to day. “My life is pretty much in the hands of the 911 dispatchers and the ER docs at both Belmond and Clarion,” she said. When a call comes in, the EMTs and drivers on duty mobilize quickly, drive an ambulance to the emergency location, and do whatever they can to get a patient ready for transport to the hospital. An EMT has to be ready to suppress bleeding, perform CPR, defibrillate a patient, or perform a number of other procedures to get a patient ready for care in a hospital.

For the full story, see the September 8 edition of the Monitor. See the September 15 paper for a report on the 9/11 service and our last installment of this series on Wright County Heroes.