Old Saybrook, Conn. Police Take on New Role: EMT
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Feb. 21--OLD SAYBROOK -- Dummies lay scattered in the back of a makeshift classroom at Clark Memorial Field while an emergency room doctor from Middlesex Hospital lectured about cardiac arrhythmia and valvular heart disease.
The students, thick textbooks before them, were no future surgeons of America. Rather, they were police officers -- 19, to be exact, from the Old Saybrook Department of Police Services.
Unlike many other towns, which send firefighters out first to medical emergencies, police officers are Old Saybrook's first responders. They're already certified as emergency medical responders, which means they can provide basic first-aid care before an ambulance or paramedic arrives.
But at the end of the 90-hour course -- and assuming all the officers pass their exams -- every single officer in the department will be certified as an emergency medical technician, or EMT.
That means police officers will be able to administer life-saving medication to those suffering from severe allergy attacks, asthma attacks, even heart attacks.
"They can do more," said EMT instructor Phil Coco, a paramedic with Middlesex Hospital who is teaching the course free of charge. "This puts more tools in their bag of tricks, so they'll be able to help more people more quickly."
Very few police departments provide this level of emergency training, Coco said. To have every member of a police force certified as an EMT is practically unheard of, he said.
For Chief Michael A. Spera, his men and women's interest in taking the course is just another example of their dedication to their jobs. When Spera sent out a survey to gauge interest in the course, every officer but Master Sgt. Robert van der Horst and Patrolman James Kiako, who are already certified, said they wanted to take the course.
"I was overjoyed, but I was alarmed at the same time," Spera said.
That's because certifying 19 officers at once posed a bit of a logistical nightmare, and Spera couldn't pay the officers what would have amounted to more than $20,000 in collective overtime pay to sit through the course. He considered starting with a handful of officers and working through the roster over time, but his officers had another idea.
As a union, they chose to waive their overtime so they could all take the course.
"They want to provide better care," said Detective David Perrotti, the union president.
Being able to administer medication when police arrival at a scene -- within an estimated 2 to 4 minutes of the 911 call -- instead of waiting 15 minutes for an ambulance or paramedic could ultimately help save someone's life, Spera said.
The officers understand this. They recall instances where they were first on the scene but unable to help because they lacked EMT certification. Responding to a call recently for a woman having an asthma attack, for instance, Patrolman Bill Bergantino found he couldn't even hand the woman an inhaler.
"I knew what needed to be done, and couldn't, and had to rely on a family member to help," Bergantino, who has more than 13 years on the job, said.
"The job is about service," he said. "In doing this, we provide a better service."