Department ready to better serve residents
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LELAND, N.C. -- Leland residents now have certified paramedics close by.
After years of planning and hours of training, the Leland Fire/Rescue Department announced that 19 members of its staff are now able to provide paramedic level services.
"The paramedic credentials require about 1,200 hours of education in medications, cardiac care, trauma, and execration," explained Chief John Grimes of the Leland Fire/Rescue Department.
Last year, Leland Fire/Rescue had 2,800 EMS calls. Now, with it's new certification, Brunswick County paramedics will not be immediately sent to those calls, which will ensure that services are not stretched too thin.
"This is going to allow us the opportunity now to put a paramedic on the scene, have another paramedic unit that’s stationed in the vicinity that will be able to respond to that second call, reducing the response times tremendously," said Randy Thompson, the director of Brunswick County Emergency Services.
In an emergency, saving a few minutes can mean saving a life.
"On a cardiac arrest they say that you lose a 10 percent chance to survive for every minute, so four or five minutes, your down to 50 percent," said paramedic, Michael White.
The staff also says not having two or more emergency vehicles responding to one call makes residents more safe.
"Anytime you put on lights and sirens and go in emergency traffic somewhere, it puts people in danger, not only us but the public," said White.
Outfitting the department with a paramedic vehicle, the required equipment, and medications took some financial planning.
"We were able to purchase defibrillators two years ago, and have those in service now; the medications are something that go out of date so we were able to purchase those now and they were a budgeted item; the cost of the other equipment was slowly graduated in," explained Grimes.
Leland Fire/Rescue is now the only fire department operated by Brunswick County with paramedic credentials.
The Leland paramedic staff has been operating since Dec 29 and they say they're averaging about 4-6 calls a day. The county EMS says it will use this as a test run before looking into certifying another fire department.