Hazlet First Aid Squad has its first CPR Save in 2017

The year 2017 has started very rapidly for the Hazlet First Aid and Rescue Squad. Chief Schmidt had 3 full duty crews standing by in the First Aid building until midnight on New Year’s Eve. The year 2016 went out quietly as the Squad had made a record 1623 assistance calls during 2016. After midnight and within the first hour of the New Year, the Duty crew started answering calls from rapid fire dispatches from the Hazlet Police Department. That crew worked nonstop until the daylight hours concluding with a call to help a person hurt at a serious motor vehicle accident. Chief Schmidt said “Hazlet PD went nonstop that night with holiday revelers who had gotten a bit over enthusiastic celebrating the New Year and finally dealt with a serious car accident on Middle Road. We just tried to keep pace with them which is a daunting task on a slow night, which New Year’s Eve certainly was not.”

New Year’s Day had the Squad and Hazlet Fire Co. No. 1 responding to the Garden State Parkway for an overturned vehicle with the occupant ejected and the vehicle engulfed in flames. Upon arrival the squad assisted MONOC Paramedics in treating the patient and preparing him for transport to a trauma center by NJ State Police Medivac Helicopter while Hazlet Fire Co. extinguished the fire.

The third day of the New Year was filled with 7 daytime calls for assistance. Then the daytime Volunteer crew received a call for a person experiencing difficulty breathing at 7:30 that evening. Hazlet Police helped load the patient into the ambulance where a two person crew was ready to transport the person to the hospital. Chief Schmidt noted, “The Police on the scene recognized this patient’s need to get to the hospital in an expedited manner and their call to move briskly was absolutely the right call.” The crew expected the patient transport to be an easy task. Suddenly and without any warning, the patient stopped breathing and the two person crew was forced to initiate CPR in a small ambulance.

Crew Chief Jen McKay and member Ken Baker requested help from the Squad immediately by radio. Chief Schmidt and 5 other members of the Squad arrived on scene to assist in less than 10 minutes. The Squad rotated CPR responsibilities every 2 minutes to insure chest compressions are rapid and forceful enough to allow the patient to be revived. Chief Schmidt added,” CPR is a very physical activity and doing CPR in a crowded ambulance complicates the effort geometrically.” Paramedics from MONOC were on scene and began to administer lifesaving drugs to the patient. Within a few more minutes, the CPR restored the patient’s heartbeat and he was transported to the hospital.

Chief Schmidt closed by saying, “It is looking like 2017 will be more active than 2016. I hope our CPR skills are going to be needed less in 2017 than in 2016, when we had 35 CPR calls. While we had 6 CPR saves last year, sudden cardiac arrest is a critical situation where the outcomes are always in doubt. Hopefully we will find a way to acquire CPR pumps which have a higher success rate than manual CPR.”