I Was A Paramedic

by Paramedic Nat

Read this article blog HERE

Historical Society Seeks Board Member

The Beaver Island Historical Society seeks to fill one seat on it Board of Trustees.  The BIHS board typically meets 10 times per year to ensure the smooth running of its museums and programs.  Interested candidates must be BIHS members; if you aren't already a member, this can easily be accomplished by going to our website www.beaverislandhistory.org or emailing bihistory@tds.net.   Persons interested in becoming a BIHS board trustee should email a brief message explaining their interest and desire to serve by October 10, 2016 to bihistory@tds.net. The appointment will be made at the October 20, 2016, BIHS meeting.  The selected trustee will serve until the Society's Annual Meeting on August 17, 2017 at which time they may seek reelection.

Working with the Primary Care Providers Over the Years, Part 1

By Joe Moore

Dr. Leonard Suidara

Prior to the creation of Beaver Island EMS, which didn’t happen until  the middle 1980’s, the Beaver Island Medical Center was staffed by a doctor.  That doctor was Dr. Leonard Suidara in the late1970’s.  It’s hard to believe that this was more than forty years ago.  Luckily, the doctor on the island had some helpers in the form of retired nurses and other helpers in the administration of the medical center.  The medical center board was also part of the support structure.

One day, a nice elderly lady was having a serious medical problem, a possible stroke.  I’m not sure how the McDonough boys recruited me to help them get the lady loaded up into the back of a pickup truck.  It seemed like an old interior door was used to lift the patient and this became my first experience with medical issues on Beaver Island.  There apparently was not a doctor on the island at this time, and the only choice was to get this lady to the mainland and to a hospital in a hurry.  The rest of the details have faded away from my memory, but the need for helping our friends and neighbors did not.

When the medical center lost its funding for a doctor, there was a serious search started for other options.  The physicians from Pine Rive in Charlevoix were enrolled to provide oversight for the medical center provider, Michael McGinnity, Registered Nurse, who had lots of experience working emergencies in the Upper Penninsula.  Mike McGinnity came to the island with his family, and began the task of continuing in the shadow of the island physicians.   He quickly learned that there was no way that he could handle every emergency by himself 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, 365 days per year.

PA Mike McGinnity

So, in 1985, Mike made contact with a friend named John LaMont, and Mike convinced John to come to the island and teach a basic EMT class.  Mike ended up with some licensed EMTs to help, but only a couple stayed on the island.  Others either didn’t pass the state exam, or moved off the island to pursue their own desires.  The one that is still on the island from this original class is Bill McDonough, who worked with Mike to help him in emergency situations.

Mike McGinnity realized that it was important to have more help than just a couple of helpers because sometimes those couple could be off the island at the same time.  So, another class was scheduled for the next year.  Every patient that had any advanced care required Mike McGinnity to travel with the patient.  This took a lot out of Mike because sometimes the transport over was quick, but getting back was delayed.  For example, he might fly a patient over to Charlevoix at ten at night and not get back to the island until mid-morning the next day.

Mike set a great example for all of the volunteers.  Even though he was paid to work at the medical center, his dedication to his patients was a learned skill put forth upon the EMT students that he helped teach in the second class that started in 1986 and finished up in 1987.  Several EMTs were successful in licensing in this class including Joe Moore, John and Joyce Runberg, Bill Markey, Neal and Connie Boyle, and others.
Mike McGinnity was still an essential part of EMS while most of the EMTs worked hard to show the community the skills that they had obtained, but Mike’s advanced skills were still essential in getting patient’s to definitive care at the hospital to obtain positive outcomes.  As can happen when you are on-call and needed 24/7/365, Mike began to burn out. 

Some of the newly formed Beaver Island EMS, setup like a club with the help of the original members mentioned already, decided that there were high level skills and specific treatments needed for time when Mike McGinnity was off the island.  Mike had his life of becoming a deacon in the Catholic Church, and eventually becoming a member of the National Guard, and attending Physician Assistant’s program in North Dakota.  The island needed a higher level of care to help cover the common emergencies that kept occurring on the island.

In 1989, an EMT-Specialist class was taught by Mike McGinnity and Larry Hansen, now director of Emmett County EMS, with Bill Markey, Jerry Sowa, Joe Moore, and others.  They worked toward this higher level of licensure.  The three mentioned were successful.  Special protocols were written to help take care of cardiac emergencies, diabetic emergencies, and severe allergic reactions, and the first automatic defibrillator class was taught on the island.

While this class was going on, a group of island people raised money in a fundraising effort entitled, “Hundred with a Heart.”  The plan, in working with the medical center and EMS, was to attract one hundred people to donate one hundred dollars to be in a position to purchase an automatic external defibrillator and all the training materials including CPR manikins with CPR monitors built into them.  Beaver Island had moved into the advanced area of care for emergencies even though it was limited to specific situations.

Dr. Phil Lange

While Mike McGinnity was off in North Dakota working on his license for his Physician’s Assistant, Doctor Phillip Lange stepped out of his retirement to help cover the medical center position and to maintain the excellent primary care available on the island.  Dr. Lange gained everyone’s respect for his level of knowledge and his desire to help all the islanders.  At one point in this period of time, Dr. Lange flew with a pre-term mother. 
Doctor Lange was also an entertainer when not involved in primary and emergency care on the island.  He was an accomplished musician, an excellent story teller, and sometimes even combined the two  talents for Music on the Porch, an annual Historical Society event during Museum Week.  Doctor Lange was obviously in charge when a patient was at the medical center, but he was willing to work alongside the EMS providers in the medical center and was happy to get patients wherever they needed to go in the most expeditious manner. 

In 1991, Dr. Lange understood the limitations of his position in the medical center.  If the patient needed more than what his equipment availability could provide, Dr. Lange would have EMS come and help.  If the patient had more advanced treatments needed, higher than EMS could monitor, Dr. Lange would go along with the patient with EMS.  Everyone in EMS respected Dr. Lange for all that he did for the community.

Mike McGinnity came back after his PA program as a Physician Assistant Certified provider.  The medical center was back under Mike’s control as Dr. Lange stepped back after two years of stepping out of retirement, but Dr. Lange became the chairman of the medical center board.  Dr. Lange worked toward the improvement of not only the primary care of island patients, but also the improvement of emergency care for all on the island.
Mike McGinnity continued as an excellent provider at the medical center, seeing patients during the day, and being available for emergencies, not only during the daytime, but also at night.  It wasn’t very long and Mike was burnt out again.  He didn’t want to respond to emergency scenes, but he would respond to the medical center if his expertise was needed.  Once he even responded to meet up with the ambulance crew at Welke Airport to give a cardiac patient the dose of a specific drug that was needed prior to EMS flying the patient off the island.  This turned out to be a fortuitous situation which led to two future paramedic classes being offered on Beaver Island. 

Mike finally decided it was time to leave the island after eleven long years of service.  Before Mike McGinnity left the island, he made sure with the help of the EMS providers that they moved up from Basic Life Support to Limited Advanced Life Support.  Mike provided the expertise in developing special protocols for use of an EpiPen for our EMTs, Autodefibrillation for cardiac arrest, and treatments for Insulin Shock for diabetics.  With his help these protocols were written and approved by Charlevoix County Medical Control Authority.

A wonderful farewell party was organized at the Holy Cross Hall for Mike and Pat McGinnity in 1996  All of the EMS providers and all of the Holy Cross Church members and community members were sad to see PA and Deacon Michael McGinnity move off the island.

FNP Penny Kiss

The next provider in the medical center was Penny Kiss.  Penny was a excellent provider and was a licensed family nurse practitioner.  She and her husband Karl were very good friends with CCSD Deputy Mike Russell and his wife Beverly.  Penny Kiss loved primary care and working at the medical center, but the emergency work was not her favorite.  This does not mean that she wasn’t very good at treating emergencies.  It just means that she preferred the primary care appointments during regular office hours.  Bev and Penny worked together very well.  Bev was an RN and an EMT at this time.  Bev had both licenses before she moved to Beaver Island.
Perhaps my favorite memory of Penny Kiss was a elderly lady who we believe to be having a heart attack, but the lady could not calm down.  She would hyperventilate and then pass out.  Bev and I were on that ambulance run, and we decided to stop by the medical center and get something to calm the patient down.  Penny gave an IV drug, and almost immediately the patient chilled out, her vital signs improved, and she stopped passing out.  The transport to the mainland was uneventful, the patient was treated by a cardiologist, and returned to the island a week later.

Penny’s husband Karl was an amazing technician.  He joined the EMS by taking the EMT class as had Mike Russell.  The needs of the island patients were the major reason for continuing to improve the level of emergency medical care on the island.  Basic Life Support wasn’t enough.  Limited Advanced Life Support wasn’t enough.  Beaver Island needed advanced life support.

 It wasn’t long after that the daughter of a previous patient of BIEMS was convinced to come to the island and teach a paramedic class.  Karl, Mike Russell, Bev Russell, Joe Moore, and Bob Hamil took this class in 1999, while Penny Kiss was still the provider at the medical center.   It is a little sad that Mike McGinnity didn’t get an opportunity to be present when we moved up to advanced life support.  This ALS service would have taken a great deal of the pressure off Mike.

Years later Mike McGinnity came back to the island to fill in for one of the providers.  He was so used to responding to the emergencies on the island from his previous years of dedication on the island.  Mike caught up with the ambulance as the paramedics were waiting to fly the patient off the island.  Mike climbed into the back of the Beaver Island ambulance prepared to go to work.  He saw that the cardiac monitor was already hooked up.  He saw that the IV was already established.  He saw the IV pump running the needed drug for this cardiac patient.  He saw the two open drug boxes.

Joe Moore gave Mike McGinnity a patient report with the hopes of working alongside Mike McGinnity one more time.  Mike listened to the patient report including the doses of drugs already given to the patient and the current drip rate of the IV pump.  Mike said, “You obviously have this under control and don’t need me.  Keep up the good work.”  Mike then climbed out of the ambulance and went about his routine.
Back to 1999. 

Lisa McCann (of the island McCanns) was the instructor for the paramedic class along with Steve Rose.  Lisa was in charge of the paramedic program at Kellogg Community College in Battle Creek, Michigan.  Her father had been the man that had needed the medication previously in this writing.  He received the correct medication and Lisa was impressed that Bev and Joe knew which medication was needed and that we called Mike McGinnity to come and provide it.  At a conference for instructors, Lisa had introduced herself and said, “Thank you for helping my Dad.  If there is anything that I can do to help you, just let me know.”

During the next break at the conference, I walked up and said to Lisa McCann, “Did you really mean it?  Would you be willing to help us out on the island?”

Lisa replied, “What do you have in mind?”

 
“Would you be willing to come to the island and teach us a paramedic class?  That way we wouldn’t have to call out the medical center provider for those with cardiac issues,” I replied.
“Let me think about this for a while, and I’ll get back to you,” Lisa McCann said.

This was the beginning of the advanced life support program on Beaver Island.  The program took eighteen months of weekends with two paramedic instructors coming to the island every weekend except Christmas and Easter.  Class ran on Friday nights, all day Saturday, and Sunday until about 3 pm.  Additional study nights were scheduled.  This advanced lifes support skill quickly became the standard of care on Beaver Island with four paramedics passing the State of Michigan exam and becoming licensed as paramedics.  The four successful paramedics were Mike Russell, Beverly Russell, Joe Moore, and Bob Hamil.  When they returned to the island, the fire department and most of the community met them out at Welke Airport with applause and a special welcomes.

 With this improved level of care, EMS on the island was actually able to provide help to the medical center provider in times where more than one person was needed for treatments at the medical center.
Penny Kiss, the medical center provider at the time, was even attending the class when it was convenient to her schedule, and her husband Karl was in the program.  Beaver Island had moved forward with improved patient care standards quickly in place and excellent working relationships with the medical center provider.  Beaver Island became the second agency in Charlevoix County to move up to the advanced life support level.  East Jordan’s Jay Peck beat Beaver Island as the first, getting his ALS agency license less than three weeks before the island accomplished the task of purchasing equipment, writing the protocols, and getting approval from Charlevoix County Medical Control Authority.

Beverly continued working as an RN at the medical center and at Charlevoix Area Hospital.  Mike continued working as a Charlevoix County Deputy Sheriff.  Joe continued teaching at the school.  Advanced Life Support was born and licensing was accomplished on Beaver Island in 2000.

Help Keep Advanced Life Support on Beaver Island

prepared in support of Beaver Island EMS by the Beaver Island Association
P. O. Box 390
Beaver Island, MI 49782
www.beaverislandassociation.org

There has been a lot of discussion over the past few months about losing Advanced Life Support Service as part of Beaver Island EMS. After two very well attended Emergency Services Authority meetings, it appears clear that there is significant community interest in maintaining ALS—which requires paramedics on the island. But, current funding is apparently not sufficient to attract paramedics to the island.  The townships have both allocated additional resources to help address this issue through the end of the summer season and plan to place millage proposals on the November ballot for a longer term solution, but it remains unclear whether there will be sufficient funding to assure continued service from the end of August until millage revenue becomes available if the ballot proposals pass.  In response to suggestions made at the ESA meetings, the Beaver Island Association, working in cooperation with the Preservation Association of Beaver Island and Beaver Island Emergency Services, has developed a website to help raise this money to fill this gap to the extent possible and as needed and, after ALS needs are met, help update equipment and meet other needs.

If you are convinced of the need for Advanced Life Support on the island and want to help, you can stop reading now and go to www.biems.org to make a contribution by credit card, check or direct bank transfer.  Your donation will be deposited in a special account set up by PABI and administered by the BIA.

If you have questions about what ALS is or why it is necessary on Beaver Island, please keep reading.

What is Advanced Life Support?

Advanced Life Support (ALS for short) is provided by paramedics who have received more than 3,000 hours of training in aggressive cardiac life support, pediatric life support, severe trauma and more than 200 other life-threatening emergency medical conditions. Paramedics can administer more than 30 advanced medications and can perform many medical procedures. They work to orchestrate an emergency medical scene and direct the operations inside the medical transport unit (ambulance). During an emergency medical call, the paramedic is in constant contact with a hospital emergency room physician. The paramedic and the physician pair together in making critical life-care decisions.

How does ALS differ from Basic Life Support?

Basic Life Support(BLS)

Ambulances provide transport to patients who do not require extra support or cardiac monitoring.  A typical BLS ambulance staffed by EMT level caregivers transport includes:

·         Lower extremity fractures

·         Discharges to home and sub-acute care facilities (nursing homes)

·         Medical and Surgical patients who do not require cardiac monitoring

·         Psychiatric patients

Advanced Life Support (ALS)

Ambulances staffed by a paramedic transport patients who need a higher level of care during transport above those services provided by a BLS ambulance, but still do not require an R.N.  Patients who typically require ALS transport include:

·         Any medical/surgical patient with a continuous IV medicine but does not need a RN per state protocols

·         Any patient on a cardiac monitor

·         Obstetrical patients

·         Patients from urgent care centers

·         Patients with potential airway compromise

·         Any patient deemed to have a potential complication during transport when report is received from the sending facility

Why do we need ALS on Beaver Island?

Without ALS capability on the island, air transport of critically ill patients (often cardiac and neurological emergencies) must wait an hour or more for off-island providers to arrive.  Research clearly shows that “Time is Muscle” in a cardiac related event and that “Time is Brain” in a neurological stroke-like event.  With island ALS, a patient can be at the hospital within an hour—at least 45 minutes more quickly than without.  Research shows that delay in this critical period makes a substantial difference in patient outcomes.

It seems to make good sense that a community as rural and isolated as Beaver Island should retain and support the highest level of competence available for our Emergency Medical Service.   Since the “Time to Hospital” can be prolonged and even uncertain with inclement weather, our local capabilities should be even better than those on the mainland. An ALS ambulance unit is effectively a “Mobile Emergency Room” when in real-time communication with an Emergency Physician.  

You Can Help

You can help assure the continued availability of Advanced Life Support on  Beaver Island by making a contribution to the cause at  www.biems.org.  Your donation will help assure the availability of funding for  paramedic staffing until the  Beaver Island Emergency Services Authority is able to work out a longer term funding plan with the townships and island taxpayers.  All donations will be received in a separate account established and controlled by the Preservation Association of Beaver Island and will be dispersed to BIEMS as directed  by the Beaver  Island Association.

About BIEMS

BIEMS provides emergency medical services to Beaver Island.  If you need urgent medical help, dial 911 and allow about 30 seconds for the call to transfer to the 911 center.  They will dispatch BIEMS 24x7 to provide assistance.  Dialing 911 is the fastest and safest way to get help. Patients in distress should not be driven or drive themselves in a private vehicle.

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Prepared in support of Beaver Island EMS by the Beaver Island Association
P. O. Box 390
Beaver Island, MI 49782
www.beaverislandassociation.org

Donations made at biems.org will be received in a separate bank account established and controlled by the Preservation Association of Beaver Island.  They will be dispersed to BIEMS as directed by the Beaver Island Association as ALS  needs are identified.  If funding is not necessary to maintain ALS (or to the extent funds exceed ALS needs), funds may be used for other BIEMS needs such as equipment updates, supplies and other needs.

32 Miles of Water

A Documentary by Philip Michael Moore

As appropriate today as it was then!

 

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