Helmet Save

Earlier this week Richmond Rescue responded to the call we all dread; "Richmond Rescue respond to car vs. bicycle. Nine year old on the ground". On the way to the call we discussed some of the possibilities of injuries and came up with plans on how to treat them. When we arrived on scene our patient was surrounded by many neighbors and we feared the worst. After walking over to her we found her looking up at us with no obvious injuries. Our initially assessment found nothing significant and we relocated to the ambulance to get the whole story and have a quieter place to talk.

Our patient was out riding on the road and lost control of her bike. The approaching car realized that something was wrong and was quickly slowing down. The two of them collided at a low speed and the biker was thrown to the ground. She hit her head on the pavement but wasn't complaining of any head pain due to the helmet. Upon looking at the helmet we found a big dent in the back.  We also found a small scrape on an elbow that wasn't even band-aid worthy.

The interesting part of this story for us is that she obtained her bike helmet at Richmond Rescue's biennial bike helmet giveaway. Over the course of this program we have given away more than 250 bike helmets and provided trained EMTs to make sure the helmet was adjusted to the rider's head.                     

We are committed to not only providing treatment for people that are sick or injured, we also have a number of programs designed to prevent injury and make our response more timely in the event of an emergency. The programs include free car seat fittings, E911 address signs, the File of Life program and many educational programs at the local schools.

Make sure to look for us in the spring for our fourth bike helmet give away.

Thanks to our patient's mother for allowing us to use the photo. 

Mutual Aid

About 40 times a year a second call for assistance comes in while we are already tied up with another emergency. About 30% of the time we are able to get a second ambulance crew together with volunteers in the community and you will not even notice that we are busy. The other 70% of the time you will be getting a ride from one of our neighboring services.

When a second call for assistance goes out, 90% of the time you'll still get one of our members responding to the scene to provide initial assessment and stabilization. After a short wait, an ambulance will arrive and you'll be on your way to the hospital.

Which back-up ambulance is the best one for your location? We spend a lot of time poring over maps and data to determine which ambulance can reach you most quickly in case we are out. Each year we take some time to reevaluate our choices to make sure it still makes sense. Here is a piece of the current back up matrix. Each dispatch center refers to this when they need a 2nd (or 7th) ambulance.

You can also see that we provide mutual aid to surrounding communities. Most often we end up in Hinesburg, northern Jericho or Williston. Occasionally we end up in a far off land such as Shelburne and have to consult our map book. Last year we provided mutual aid 52 times and received mutual aid 18 times.

We are fortunate to be surrounded by a number of great ambulance services. Whether you end up with an ambulance from Williston, Essex, UVM or St. Mikes you'll be in good hands.