Ambulance to Pohoiki

[rainshadow]

Can we revoke Billy's raise??? Save a life in the process?


-- rainshadow

[Seeb]

Helicopters don't usually land anywhere near the public without having personnel on the ground, so it's not going to save time on the response end.

But I had heard that they were trying to put a fire house down there- volunteer at least to start. I don't know what became of that.
It would help response times a lot

[pahoated]

How did the county get into this? Seriously, get a grip. The costs of the medevac are totally billed to the patient.

Just this morning, saw two Hilo hospital ambulances heading beyond Pahoa. The Pahoa firestation might have some paramedics but if it is really serious, they have to get an ambulance from Hilo or the medevac. Consider the ambulance from Hilo has equal Puna opportunity, having only Hwy 130. And that is 25 miles. Even at 60mph, that is 25 minutes. Don't know why it surprises some, Puna is very rural.

"This island Hawaii on this island Earth"

[Greg]

Pahoa ted says:

"The Pahoa firestation might have some paramedics but if it is really serious, they have to get an ambulance from Hilo or the medevac."
____________________________________________________________________

This is not true. The HFD has excellent EMT's that are all trained to the same high level of competency. The only time an ambulance would be dispatched to Puna from another location is when the Pahoa unit is already on a call.

edit:
AMS (American Medical Response) is a private ambulance company here on Hawaii Island. They are used ocaisionally for patient transfers etc, to supplement the HFD's heavy workload. HFD prefers to keep "first response" in house because of their higher level of training and experience.

[cwaters]

We live in Wa'aWa'a and my husband had to go to the hospital twice one for an injurey due to the condition of of Gov.Bch.Rd. Both times the Ambulance driver complained it took them three times as long to get down the road, and that the potholes made the patient very uncomfortable, and the emergency services hard to deliver. We can not get the county to fix the potholes.

[Peter Easterling]

I started this topic. I am not complaining and I know Puna is large and rural. I simply want to know how long it took. If I, my family, or anyone else is seriously injured at Pohoiki I want to know whether it is better to drive or wait.

So, again, if anyone knows the facts (time call made, time of ambulance arrival and if there were any unusual circumstances). Anyone have factual information?

[pahoated]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Greg
This is not true. The HFD has excellent EMT's that are all trained to the same high level of competency. The only time an ambulance would be dispatched to Puna from another location is when the Pahoa unit is already on a call.

---

Never said they weren't, cast aspersions much? The reality is if somebody got a stingray spike through their heart down at Pohoiki, the best EMT is only going to try to stabilize, not do surgery in Puna. So, if the Pahoa ambulance is there and has to drive into Hilo, that is another 30 to 40 minutes, if they don't get caught in a Hwy 130 traffic jam. Then, they would probably have to stabilize more and medevac them to Maui. Serious, meaning life threatening, often requires response time of seconds, not tens of minutes. The Pahoa ambulance must be on calls a lot because I see Hilo hospital ambulances all the time south of Pahoa. And in case you haven't noticed, there are a lot of crashes, violence and accidents in Puna.

(There are efforts to try to get another ambulance for the Pahoa station and an ER in Pahoa.)

"This island Hawaii on this island Earth"

[Greg]

Sorry pahoated, I thought you said "the Pahoa firestation might have some paramedics but if it is really serious, they have to get an ambulance from Hilo or the medevac".

Oh, wait That is what you said.......Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but from that I get that you don't feel the Pahoa EMT's are of the same quality as the big city EMT's.(If It's really serious).



I tried to point out that ALL the EMT's on Hawaii Island are equally trained. If there is a response problem it's from too large an area with too few units.

[bluesboy]

just because something bad happens (shark attack), do we have to point fingers? can't something bad happen and that's just the way it is? when was the last shark attack at pohoiki? I wouldn't classify shark attacks as a regular occurrence deserving of millions of dollars of gov't intervention. it's a dangerous coastline. stay out of the water if you don't like it.

[Seeb]

The hospital does not run ambulances. All ambulances are HFD except a few AMR rigs that do mainly transport and is mostly staffed by off duty county guys because Hawaii does not accept national registry EMTs