First responders and emergency units from a 17 county region gathered in Lexington last week to showcase their equipment and response plans should the alarm bells sound.
The TAC Air Hangar at Blue Grass Airport resembled a triage center – with tents, emergency vehicles, and gas masks on display. But it was all for show, specifically the Region 15 Healthcare Coalition showcase. 23 hospitals, 5 EMS agencies, and many others aired out their equipment and made connections in the event they’re called on to work together at a moment’s notice.
"Fortunately, within our region, we haven't had a whole lot of disasters, which is really good," coalition chair Angela Kik said. "The last time a little bit of this equipment was actually employed was during the West Liberty tornadoes, so it is time to share knowledge, share our capabilities with each other."
Minutes later, the Lexington Fire Department took an audience of onlookers step-by-step through the painstaking process of suiting up for an Ebola outbreak, transporting a patient, and decontaminating. It's a tedious procedure, but one that needs to conform to a timetable.
"The term often used in the hospital setting is the 'golden hour.' We want to get anybody with any type of emergency to a hospital within an hour," Major Chad Traylor explained.
And needless to say, hypochondriacs need not apply. After two demonstrators shed their hazmat suits, sweat coats their foreheads. Traylor said drills are repeated until it’s second nature and his crew can take the heat – literally.
"You can generally add about 15 to 20 degrees from just being in that suit," he noted.
While tornadoes and ice storms are the biggest threats in Kentucky, the officials on hand made it clear complacency is a luxury they can’t afford – and it’s meetings like this one that help frontline workers collaborate when the stakes are high.
