Emergency Medical Services in southeast: neighbor helping neighbor: mostly volunteer squads of first responders meet panhandle challenges.

• Author: Swagel, Will
• Position: HEALTHCARE

The town of Pelican on the northeast corner of Chichagof Island spans only about a mile and a half end-to-end--mostly along a raised boardwalk that serves as the Main Street of the town. Residents don't have cars; their preferred method of motor transport is by four-wheeler. With a population of about one hundred year-round, everybody knows everybody else.

So it wasn't unusual that Allen Stewart, riding his four-wheeler down the boardwalk one day some years back, would see a friend riding the other way on his four-wheeler. Then, the friend unexpectedly stopped his ATV. He had suffered a heart attack. But the friend was very lucky.

Stewart, an EMT 2, is the leader of a small group of volunteers who are called upon to be the first responders in times of medical emergency. He and a few others were on the scene immediately and quickly moved the still-breathing man to their tiny clinic building located in the center of town. Although there was no resident health provider in Pelican at the time, Stewart and other responders were able to use the clinic's equipment. Then, the man's heart stopped and he stopped breathing. But Stewart and the others were able to restart his heart with defibrillator paddles and stabilize him.

A US Coast Guard helicopter was summoned and arrived about two hours later. The man was flown to Mt. Edgecumbe hospital in Sitka. He was gone from Pelican for a few months. And then Stewart felt satisfaction one day when he saw the man astride his four-wheeler again, riding down the boardwalk.

"When he came back to town we were glad to see him," says the plain-talking Stewart. "We know we've done the best we can when we get them out of here breathing. And if they come back, great."

Stewart is a prime example of the first responders who comprise the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) squads in small towns and villages up and down the Southeast Panhandle. Stewart's day job is directing the City of Pelican Public Works Department. He says the city is very supportive of his role as a responder, letting him take the time he needs when emergencies arise.

Another EMS call Stewart answered circa 2000 couldn't have been closer to home. Stewart was having lunch when a call came in that a fishing boat had run aground nearby. He and a few other responders were halfway to the scene when Stewart realized it was his family's boat that had had the accident. His daughter had fractured her skull. He rode with her in the US Coast Guard helicopter to Sitka, where she was stabilized. By midnight, she was being treated in a trauma unit at a Seattle hospital. She recovered fully and, recently...