Yale EMTs: the life they save may be yours

Starting Fri., Mar. 23, members of the newly formed Yale College Emergency Medical Service Information Club (YCEMSIC) will be riding along with the New Haven Fire Department (NHFD) as a way to gain hands-on experience.

COURTESY YCEMSIC Yale students practice aiding a victim of spinal trauma during an EMT training course.

According to Phil Gorrindo, MC '03, the club's co-president and co-founder, "This will be an invaluable experience for us as green EMTs. Our ride time will not be `observation time'—we will be primary BLS [basic life support] caregivers on the response team. We will be on-scene to provide emergency medical service."

While the club only officially started this year, Leo Kelly, a community firefighter in West Haven and an EMT instructor, has been teaching an EMT-B class on campus for the past five semesters.

"With each graduating class, more and more students were walking around campus interested in emergency medicine and service, and with very little to do," Gorrindo said. "We discovered that collegiate EMS across the country is quite common and successful. We are interested in the many areas of pre-hospital care and emergency technical service."

As Corin Slown, TD '03, treasurer of the club and co-founder and co-president with Gorrindo, explained, "Once you become an EMT, it is your choice whether you want to become a member of the club. The club is a means to provide access and information to students who want to ride with emergency medical services and further their education."

This Friday will be the first day students have a chance to ride with the NHFD. "The purpose of this partnership with the NHFD is hands-on experience," Slown said. "Yale student EMTs will be saving lives. We're governed by the State of Connecticut Protocols for EMTs, and our fundamental skills range from CPR to the use of an automated external defilbrillator."

Sam Ash, TC '04, who is taking the class, is excited about these ride-alongs. "Once we're certified, we're as competent as normal paramedics," he said. "At the same time that we're helping people, we'll be gaining valuable experience."

"We will definitely get experience and instruction from our ride time," Gorrindo added. "Students will be able to serve not only their peers, but also the greater New Haven community. This program will introduce riding students to a different face of the city. But we hope that NHFD will also benefit from this program. Extra hands can always help, and we hope that new energy and vitality will add to the environment of NHFD stations."

In addition to these ride-alongs, the YCEMSIC is hoping to start an EMT service to serve both Yale and New Haven. According to the club's mission statement, "as members of YCEMSIC, we will investigate the possibility and opportunities of establishing a collegiate emergency medical response system on the Yale campus." Other colleges such as Amherst, Brown, and Georgetown, members of the National Collegiate EMS Foundation, already have these programs. But at Yale, plans are still works in progress according to Gorrindo.

Many of the club's members are students who plan to be doctors. Ash, who is pre-med, said, "Last night, right after we were learning how to put someone on a stretcher in EMT class, I had to go to my chemistry review session and learn about electrolysis. I feel like my EMT class is preparing me so much better to be a doctor than Chem 114 is. I think all pre-meds should be required to take an EMT class."

Lucas Hanft, TC '04, is also happy that Ash, his suitemate, is taking the EMT class. He said, "I was feeling sick in the middle of the night, but was too tired to go the bathroom, so I took an Advil without water. I thought to myself, `If I choke, I'll wake Sam up and he will be able to save my life.' It's a comfort having him in the suite."

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