Tom Barnes is on the front lines of emergency medical treatment. A firefighter and paramedic with the Upper Pine River Fire Protection District near Bayfield, he loves his job because he’s helping his community.
“I like the fact the department is really small,” he said. “You really know the people you’re working with.”
He also knows the people he’s helping. In the rural community, when a call comes in, chances are Barnes knows who it came from.
“Its not like the bigger cities,” he said. “You know these people. You’ve been to church with them. You’ve seen their kids graduate.”
Barnes joined others from all over the region for the 34th annual Colorado Symposium on Emergency Care held at Fort Lewis College. They attended various classes on new protocols for treatment, listened to lectures, met educators in the field and shared their ideas. Firefighters, emergency medical technicians, paramedics – they all were there.
The timing was perfect. This week is National EMS week.
Many state certifications need to be renewed every three years and national certifications every two. The symposium provides some of that training.
It was coordinated by T. Troy Salazar, EMS Coordinator at Southwest Colorado Community College.
Salazar, who left a career in restaurant management for a life in emergency response after attending a symposium on emergency care in 1998, has worked in the field from Moab to Walsenburg.
“I came home from the conference, looked at my wife and said, ‘I want to be a paramedic,’” he said.
Following his education, he said he is passionate about what he does, and 16 years later, he is running the event that changed his life.
Salazar said in this line of work, education never stops.
“We have to be on top of our game,” he said, “That’s what these conferences do. They teach us new things.”
He tells his students the day they stop learning is the day they stop working in the field.
“If you’re not learning from every call,” he said, “then something is wrong.”
Keynote speaker Scott Bourn, vice president of Clinical Practices and Research in Denver, called emergency medical services a young, evolving profession. He also said emergency response should be built into our culture.
“If I had cardiac arrest right now,” he said, “the difference between my living and not is probably you. The ultimate life-saving belongs to all of us.”
Salazar said that people in the general public can help in medical emergencies.
“I’m not sure people know how important they are,” he said, noting that simple training in a practice like CPR can make all the difference in the world.
Don Dustin, from Creede, is director of Mineral County Ambulance, a volunteer position with a volunteer staff. He attended classes on anaphylactic shock and implanted cardiac defibrillators – a pre-installed jump starter for the heart.
“Medicine is always changing,” Dustin said. “We’re getting new rules to do stuff.”
Like Barnes, he, too, said he wants to help when it’s crucial.
“It’s something that’s very rewarding,” Dustin said, who also teaches first aid. “You’re in your community helping your neighbors.”
Salazar said paid or volunteer, they all share a common bond.
“You always hear about the brotherhood with the firefighters and the police force,” he said, “but, in EMS, there’s a good portion of that. We’re all together. There’s always something we can do to help.”
bmathis@durangoherald.com
