By Jim Bissett
The Dominion Post
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. 鈥� For the people who work as first responders across the Mountain State, it鈥檚 all about the numbers.
And not just the 911 number called after that bad wreck on the interstate 鈥� or when a loved one is slumped over the kitchen table.
鈥淩ight now, we need everybody we can get, " Christopher Starkey, a paramedic and lieutenant with Lewis County Emergency Medical Services, said Tuesday night.
鈥淭hey need to understand: If we lose one more program in this state that puts out medical providers, we鈥檙e in really bad shape, " he said.
Starkey made the hour-long drive from Lewis County on Tuesday evening to attend a meeting of the Monongalia County Board of Education, which is currently responding to a medical-related circumstance of its own.
He was among the crowd鈥攎any of them first responders鈥攖hat filled the meeting room and milled in the hallway of the board and school district鈥檚 central office in Sabraton.
Starkey wasn鈥檛 there on behalf of his employer, he said. He was there for his brothers and sisters who do what he does.
He鈥檚 the creator and administrator of his 鈥淲V Calvary EMS " Facebook page, which advocates for those first responders out on calls every day.
Pulling the plug?
Mon鈥檚 board is considering whether to eliminate the emergency medical services program at the Monongalia County Technical Education Center.
MTEC has long been lauded for its turning out of nurses, operating room technicians and the like.
Due to declining revenues, however, Mon Schools鈥攚hile being relatively more prosperous than its Mountain State neighbors鈥攊s still operating with about $4 million less in its coffers than it normally has budgeted this time in the academic year.
That means, as Schools Superintendent Eddie Campbell Jr. said last week, making the hard decisions of what to cut out鈥攁nd what to leave in.
One program the district might have to reluctantly let go, he said, is the EMS program at MTEC.
Students sign up, the superintendent said, but many drop out due to its academic rigor. The program takes in everything from biochemistry to human anatomy and neuroscience.
Rigor, though, is what first responders need to effectively render aid, Starkey said.
In nearly two decades as a full-time, licensed paramedic and emergency medical technician, he鈥檚 responded to the full multitude of calls, from cardiac arrests鈥�"I鈥檒l never forget that first one "鈥攖o toddlers spiking dangerous fevers in the middle of night, with their anxious parents looking on.
Keeping the (ambulance) lights on The trouble is, he said, there are way more calls than there are people willing to take the time to answer them.
Last year alone in West Virginia, some 1, 000 EMTs and 800 paramedics responded to nearly 2 million emergency calls requiring an ambulance, he said.
This is in a state, he said, which has seen at least 26 independent ambulance services fade away in recent years, due to lack of money and people.
鈥淢ost of the EMS agencies out there aren鈥檛 funded by the state, " he said. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e not funded by the municipalities, they鈥檙e not funded by the counties.
鈥淎 lot of them survive on what they bill from calls. And if you don鈥檛 have the people to run the calls, you don鈥檛 stay open.鈥�
A full recovery MTEC, meanwhile, has a proven record of producing such professionals, said Chelsea Hayes, who directs its EMS program.
鈥淥ur kids absolutely have jobs when they graduate, " said Hayes, herself a paramedic.
And, she said, they鈥檙e already saving lives.
One 17-year-old student of the program who works part-time at a local restaurant, recently performed CPR on a patron who had suffered a medical emergency, Hayes told the school board.
That patient left the hospital, fully recovered, three days later, she said.
Hayes urged the board to consider that, while mulling its decision.
She urged board members to consider what will happen when they call 911 鈥� today, next week or next month.
鈥淓MTs and paramedics are the only clinicians trained to make life-of-death decisions with no labs, no imaging, no backup鈥攋ust a gut, a brain and a flashlight, " she said.
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