LARNED — Pawnee County first responders attended a training session at the fire department training grounds south of Larned Friday morning.
For them, it was practice; for those watching, however, it contained a real-life message: Don’t drive impaired.
Pawnee County EMS Director Kara Lawrence invited the entire Pawnee Heights student body and the junior and senior classes from Larned High School to the event. The message, she noted, was for them.
“We spent weeks preparing this impaired driving scenario to make it as realistic as possible,” Lawrence said. “Some parts were graphic, yes, but it was done so that the students could see what we as first reponders would expect to see and do see at an accident scene.”
The scenario unfolds
After the actors were prepped and students were seated, the scenario began Friday morning with the dispatch all-call at 10:02 a.m.
Larned Assembly of God pastors Ryan Webster and Jarred Smith, with Doug Ellison, also an EMT for Hodgeman County, provided commentary as students listened to actual communications traffic between the on-scene responders and dispatch in Larned.
Larned Police Department Sgt. TJ Hearn was first to arrive to provide a preliminary assessment. The scenario, happening after prom, involved four juveniles, two each in two cars that had apparently collided, with various injuries for each.
Next to arrive was Kansas Highway Patrol Lt. Brent Hemken, followed closely by Pawnee County EMS. Each victim was triaged according to degree of injury. A Code Black (deceased) designation was given to the driver of the severely-damaged Buick LaSabre; a passenger in the LaSabre received Code Red (urgent injury); a passenger in the Chevrolet Cavalier was given Code Yellow (critical injury) and the Chevy’s driver was designated Code Green (non-serious injury).
Larned Fire and Rescue, under direction from EMS responders on the scene, were tasked with removing the LaSabre’s roof, using the Jaws of Life to gain access to the injured Code Red passenger. While this was going on, occupants of the Chevy were attended to, with Sgt. Hearn taking statements and administering a sobriety test to the driver.
As the Code Black victim was removed from the active scene, the LaSabre passenger was extricated, fitted with a neck brace and loaded by stretcher into the ambulance by EMS.
EMS Director Lawrence noted that the scenario had been planned to include the arrival of an Eagle Med helicopter slated for the Code Red victim’s LifeWatch flight to Wichita, but the helicopter had to respond to an actual emergency and did not participate in the exercise.
The Code Yellow passenger was treated for an open-wound leg fracture and removed from the vehicle.
Treatment of the victims was accomplished within 30 minutes of the two-hour exercise; however, two final tasks remained to be done.
The Code Green victim was placed under arrest and transported by LPD squad car.
The Code Black victim, which had been identified, covered and placed in a body bag, was then prepared for transport by hearse provided by Larned’s Beckwith Mortuary as last to arrive on-scene.
Takeaways
After the scenario, Lawrence talked to the students about the real-life aspects of an accident scene.
“I’d apologize about the weather today, but on the flip side, that’s about as real as it gets,” she said. “Having the blowing sand and dirt and the cold, that’s what it would be like. While you might be thinking, ‘yeah, I could watch this on a movie,’ I get it. I’ve watched these as a student, too.
“But the one thing that I want to point out that nobody has said yet, is that the one that was driving impaired left in an LEO vehicle. Her life would be forever changed. Nobody discussed whether the Code Black patient had anything on board. But he could have just as well been an innocent person driving down the road wearing their seat belt and all of a sudden, their life is gone, because somebody else made a choice to drive impaired.
“What also isn’t talked about is, in a real situation, in about 36 hours, all of what happens to our first responders is going to come flooding back and they will have to deal with the mental trauma that they have.”
As members of the other departments took the microphone, they talked about how each incident impacts them.
In his turn, KHP Lt. Hemken told the students that informing the family is extremely difficult.
“The last thing that we want to do is come to a house at 2 o’clock in the morning, ring the doorbell, wait for a light to come on and stand there, hat in hand, to tell parents that their son or daughter has died in an car accident,” he said. Hospital emergency room nurses and dispatchers are also affected, although they were not physically present at the scene.
Lawrence thanked the school districts for bringing the students to the scenario and especially those who participated in the event. Portraying the Code Black victim was LHS junior Matt Figger; Code Red was played by Adam Hands, Pawnee Heights junior; Sara Manry, LHS junior, played the Code Yellow victim and Code Greeen was played by PHHS senior Elizabeth Rasmussen.
