Paramedics

Officials from the nation's largest organization representing emergency medical personnel said mistakenly declaring a victim dead - as was the case in Northwest Baltimore this weekend - is rare but not unheard of. Jerry Johnston, the immediate past president of the National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians, said statistics are not kept on the number of these incidents, but he is aware of cases in which someone was initially declared dead,...

After she'd helped a man who had been shot three times into a wheelchair, after an SUV had delivered another shooting victim and two more men had walked past with bloodied T-shirts covering their wounds, nurse Cindy Barber began to wonder just what was unfolding in the Johns Hopkins emergency room. "Are there more coming?" she asked herself. "Is someone still after them, and are they going to come here?" Ambulances soon arrived with more patients, and by the end of Barber's July 26 overnight shift, police, paramedics, nurses and doctors had scrambled to treat 18 people shot during the bloodiest five hours that any of the first responders could remember in Baltimore.

A Maryland State Police flight paramedic was fatally injured when he was hit by a truck while jogging in North Carolina, police said yesterday. First Sgt. Tobin Triebel, 39, of New Market was struck at 8:30 a.m. Friday by a tree-trimming truck while he was vacationing in Hillsborough, N.C., state police said. He was airlifted to a nearby hospital, where he died, police said. Sergeant Triebel had worked on the force for 13 years, police said. He was the Aviation Command Training supervisor and had previously worked as the Western Region supervisor, overseeing the Frederick and Cumberland aviation sections.

Medevac missions well worth the risk As a 33-year veteran of the fire service and a licensed Maryland paramedic, I can personally attest to instances of lives saved by advanced life-support air medical transport ("Advantages of medevac transport challenged," Oct. 5). While there are documented cases of patients being re-triaged upon arrival at Shock Trauma or one of our many associated specialty referral centers, the benefits of these missions greatly outweigh the risks. When you compare the air miles and hours of completed transportation missions with the number of tragedies that have befallen this system, one cannot honestly question the appropriateness of medevac services.

As a child, Mickey Lippy dreamed of becoming a rescuer and pretended to fight fires with a vacuum cleaner hose and transport victims on an old TV stand that doubled as a makeshift gurney. The Carroll County resident, who realized that aspiration by growing up to become a state police flight paramedic, lost his life in a medevac helicopter crash last weekend in Prince George's County. The 34-year-old trooper's lifelong desire to help others was remembered yesterday during a funeral service in Gamber attended by family and friends, and hundreds of fire, police and emergency rescue personnel.

Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. today at the Gamber and Community Fire Co., Route 32 and Niner Road, Finksburg, for Tfc. Mickey Charles Lippy, a Maryland State Police flight paramedic who was killed in the weekend crash of a Medevac helicopter in Prince George's County. Trooper Lippy, who was 34, lived in Westminster. Surviving are his wife of eight years, the former Christina Elaine "Chrissy" Patchett; a daughter, Madison Jade Lippy, 4 months old; his parents, Bruce and Wilma Newberry Lippy of Parkville; two sisters, Diana Martin of Parkville and Dawn Childs of White Hall; and paternal grandmother Bessie Lippy of Chestnut Ridge.

A paramedic who leads emergency medical service training for peers as well as for doctors and nurses been named the county government's Employee of the Year. Fire Lt. Joseph Ross, a full-time instructor at the James N. Robey Public Safety Training Center in Marriottsville, is the lead instructor for the Emergency Medical Training courses and paramedic continuing education courses, according to the county government. In addition to training his peers, Ross teaches nurses and doctors about advanced cardiac life support and pediatric advanced life support.

Howard County Fire Capt. Stephen M. Hardesty remembers his parents telling him as a young child that the first words he spoke were "fire engine." For Lt. Joseph R. Ross, becoming an emergency medical services provider was following a family tradition of serving as career firefighters. After years of service, Hardesty and Ross will be recognized as Career Firefighter and Career EMS Provider of the Year, respectively, by the American Legion - Department of Maryland. They are to receive their awards at the organization's annual convention tomorrow in Ocean City.

The family of a 7-year-old girl who was attacked by a pit bull in Southwest Baltimore expressed outrage yesterday at what they described as an excessive delay between when they called 911 and paramedics arrived. Despite multiple emergency calls starting about 9 p.m. Friday from family members, neighbors and police, a Fire Department ambulance did not reach the 1400 block of Ramsay St. until 9:30 p.m., according to fire officials. According to police, Baltimore sheriff's deputies began attempting to pry the dog from the girl at 9 p.m. After two deputies shot and killed the dog - which had been latched on to the girl's left leg for about 20 minutes - relatives of Kayla Mitchell said they had to wait an additional 15 minutes for the ambulance as a family friend held her on the sidewalk.

The radio in the emergency medical vehicle crackled - the stifling heat had overwhelmed someone on Lexington Street. Capt. Charles Cheelsman turned on the vehicle's lights and sirens and hit the accelerator. Cars swerved to get out of the way as he sped toward Lexington Market. When he got there, he found Murdis Ferguson, 52, drooping in a plastic chair. She had been walking with a friend, Celeste Gross, also 52, when she was overcome by the heat. Yesterday, the temperature hit 98 in the city, but it felt like 106, according to the National Weather Service.