Reid emergency physician supports emergency team
With
a little rehydration, the dog perked right up.
A small victory in a massive emergency deployment, indicated Samuel Iden, M.D., a Reid Hospital emergency physician and a member of Indiana Task Force 1, now stationed in Lafayette, La.
Task Force 1 consists of 84 people drawn from a cross section of state agencies to field a balanced team of rescue specialists, hazardous material experts, structural engineers, four paramedics, four rescue dogs and two physicians.
The doctors' job, Dr. Iden recently reported, is to keep the rest of the team, including the dogs, in action.
"We’ve had a few cuts and bruises," Dr. Iden said, "but so far the biggest challenge has been starting an IV in one of the rescue dogs. Veterinary medicine is a bit outside my usual field."
FEMA at first sent Task Force 1 to Houston to have the team’s urban search and rescue capabilities ready on the flank of the anticipated path of a hurricane believed to have more potential for damage than Katrina. When calamity failed to materialize, the team was moved to Louisiana to be ready to deal with Gustav, a storm that also did comparatively little damage.
Still, with a medley of tropical storms heading in the general direction, FEMA has kept Task Force 1 and others mobilized, particularly in view of the destructive potential of Hurricane Ike.
"I really appreciate the way my colleagues in the Reid Emergency Department, Emergency Medicine of East Central Indiana, have filled in for me," said Dr. Iden. "They are truly an outstanding group."
Between moves, the task force has kept its skills sharp with comprehensive training that included a simulation of a parking garage collapse in which victims had to be found, recovered and treated in process. A similar drill began with the rescue dogs locating simulated casualties in a collapsed building.
Besides such exercises and a heavy schedule of classroom work, the task force members kept busy maintaining and updating their equipment and supplies.