Emergency Medical

Harford County volunteer firefighters and emergency medical workers will hold a mass casualty drill at Edgewood High School from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. June 28. Volunteers will practice responding spontaneously to a disaster situation. With help from the Maryland Institute for Emergency Medical Services Systems, a major disaster will be simulated. Last year, a train wreck was enacted. Upper Chesapeake Hospital in Bel Air and Harford Memorial Hospital in Havre de Grace also will participate.

Hoping to improve the chances of saving lives of critically injured children, Carroll County paramedics are using a state grant to buy kid-sized resuscitation equipment and to train to better treat the youngest of patients. Ambulances at each of the 14 volunteer fire companies serving the county will carry a Broselow bag, a resuscitation kit that includes equipment in varying sizes to children. Jeff M. Fleming, a paramedic for Gamber and Community Fire Company, said the bag would cut the time it takes to sort through equipment to fit children, who he said account for about 10 percent of Carroll County's emergency calls.

Paul M. Fabiszak, president of a well-drilling company and longtime volunteer firefighter and emergency medical services provider in Baltimore and Harford counties, died of a pulmonary embolism Tuesday at his home in Freeland. He was 54. Mr. Fabiszak was a lifelong resident of Baltimore. He graduated from Calvert Hall College in Towson in 1967 and joined the Christian Brothers of St. John the Baptist de LaSalle religious order in Memphis, Tenn. He attended Christian Brothers College, but after the death of his father left the order and returned to Baltimore to assist his mother.

HARTFORD, Conn. - A fire raced through one wing of a Connecticut nursing home in the middle of the night, killing 10 people and sending 23 to hospitals with injuries yesterday, officials said. Police said investigators were questioning a resident who had been taken into custody. The fire broke out at the Greenwood Health Center in Hartford shortly after 2:30 a.m. Witnesses reported hearing windows breaking and screams from the sprawling one-story building on the city's west side, about a mile and a half from the state Capitol.

Washington County Hospital officials said yesterday that they're turning to a team of Maryland trauma experts to advise the hospital on ways to reopen its trauma center. The center closed abruptly June 1 - with only two days notice - after local surgeons said they would no longer provide the required round-the-clock staffing. The Hagerstown hospital has said it hopes to find a new staffing model that will allow the center to reopen. Originally, the hospital was planning to get advice from a team from the American College of Surgeons.

Nineteen months after being found "generally unprepared" to deal with attacks designed to inflict large numbers of civilian casualties, Maryland emergency and health officials say they are better positioned to respond quickly, though still not completely ready. Since starting to worry about "weapons of mass destruction" three years ago, the state has developed networks for spotting a potential germ-warfare attack and for coping better with the flood of sick or injured victims that might result from a terrorist attack.

In the aftermath of last week's terrorist attacks, local and state health authorities are stepping up efforts to prepare for a possible biological or chemical attack. They're tracking ambulance runs and hospital emergency rooms for certain symptoms, putting physicians and labs on alert and considering stockpiling drug supplies. Some of the actions are part of emergency plans already in place; others are steps officials are adding to make Maryland as prepared as possible. "We want to make sure our systems are geared up to respond as best we can," said Dr. Bob Bass, the state's emergency medical services director.

Farmers' market opens this month in Westminster The Downtown Westminster Farmers' Market opens this month at the Sherwood Parking Lot on Railroad Avenue and Distillery Drive. The market will be held from 8 a.m. to noon Saturdays through Oct. 27. The farmers' market features fresh seasonal produce, including fruits, vegetables, herbs, honey, flowers, eggs, apple butter, raw and spun wool, and organically grown produce. All produce is delivered and sold directly by local farmers. The market is sponsored by the mayor and Common Council of Westminster.

Bill to allow patients to choose practitioner or physician for care Patients in health maintenance organizations could select a nurse practitioner as their primary care physician under a bill approved yesterday by the House of Delegates. Backers of the bill, approved 73-49, said they want patients to have the option of choosing a physician or nurse practitioner to treat them and make decisions about their care. HMOs would not be permitted to require a patient to be seen by a nurse practitioner.

With the flu season just getting under way, hospital emergency rooms throughout metropolitan Baltimore have been declaring "yellow alerts" this week -- meaning they are too busy to take additional patients. Though the number fluctuates from hour to hour, seven of the region's 21 hospitals were asking ambulances to take patients elsewhere by late afternoon yesterday. A day earlier, 17 said they were treating all the patients they could handle. "It's very busy," said Dr. Brian Browne, director of emergency medicine at the University of Maryland Medical Center.