05/24/2024
USCG Rescue Swimmers are only basic EMT’s, and that’s a problem.
Repost• Attention to Award (CGCM)! Here’s to AST1 Steve Scheren. The official father of the LADPU / ALRP, whatever you want to call it. Steve recognized and provided lasting solution to a long standing rotary wing patient care deficiency. From start to finish and over 10 years in the making. You no longer need to convince an aircraft commander to perform non-standard procedures. THERE IS STILL WORK TO BE DONE “In conclusion, while a procedure has been authorized at the HQ level, the patient safety culture is still in peril. Operational RSs do not have a voice loud enough to be heard. Senior enterprise leaders fail to respond based on ancillary change impacts. CG RSs remain the only federal medical evacuation resource that responds to civilians with medical skills that equate to CPR, bleeding control, and AED use. All other federal resources require rescuers to maintain an EMT Paramedic certification. Patients under the care of singular RSs (90% of cases) are at a great survivability disadvantage when compared to all other HEMS organizations. Patients under the care of CG medical professionals are not apart of any “just safety culture”. In the realm of HEMS / medical evacuations in austere conditions RSs are experts in non-medical technical rescue performance, there are no equals, especially in the marine environment. Unless steps forward can be made in regard to the bad norms of CG operational medical care, it will remain our dirty little secret. In specifically, medical emergencies, a CG asset is the last one I would choose for my family. We still have a problem and are not Semper Paratus as it concerns CG operational patient care.
Despite popular enterprise opinion, the CG will never get away from the medical evacuation skillset. This is based on the nature of our missions. The SAR mission across hundreds of CG operational units encompasses medical evacuations like it or not. Most survivors require medical care upon recovery. Patients are rarely located in areas and environments accessible to civilian assets. The core values of the CG require us to lean into the problem not away.
