ROC – a Totally New Training Standard for Emergency Medical CPR
It is always fascinating to learn a new fact – that is totally contrary to what you thought you already knew!
Thanks to Argyle Fire District’s Medical Director, Dr. Justin Northeim, D.O., for his very informative Power Point presentation at a recent AFD Board Meeting.
Emergency Medical Personnel on an ambulance have been taught that getting the injured patient into the “box” (ambulance) and expedited on their way to the hospital is their primary task! CPR (Cardiac Pulmonary Resuscitation) is performed around the primary task of transporting the injured person as quickly as possible to the hospital.
But a database of facts compiled since 2006 contradicts this traditional training standard for EMTs and paramedics! For every minute after the initial trauma, that CPR is delayed or interrupted, ten percent less patients will walk out of the hospital on their own with most of their mental faculties intact! That is a HUGE statistical conclusion!
For CPR Victims, Resuscitation in the Field is the Single Best Chance to Return Home Alive. (99% of trauma patients receiving immediate CPR in the field Survived to their Hospital Discharge – versus 1% Survived to their Hospital Discharge who were not resuscitated in the Field.)
CPR is the means to force blood to the brain and the rest of the body. Blood carries oxygen to these vital organs – and without oxygen these organs can suffer permanent, often irreversible, damage.
On a personal basis, this means that the CPR you learn as an individual can be invaluable to help someone survive a trauma without their mental and physical capacity permanently maimed – a suffocating infant, an adult with a heart attack, a person in the midst of a stroke, a drowning victim, a person choking in a school cafeteria or restaurant!
ROC stands for “Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium.” The organization began keeping statistical data in 2006 and has now spread across the United States. The DFW Metroplex is home to one of the largest ROC structures in the nation. It includes the cities of Dallas, Irving, Carrollton, Mesquite, Plano, Fort Worth (and 11 other surrounding cities under Medstar), 4 million people, 33 hospitals and 6 Trauma Centers, 16 EMS Agencies and 2 air services, 5,000 paramedics and firefighters, and 8 Institutional Review Boards!
In Denton County, included are the towns of Denton, Justin, Krum, Lake Cities Fire Department (serving Corinth, Hickory Creek, Lake Dallas, and Shady Shores), Sanger, Lewisville, and our Argyle Fire District (serving Argyle, Bartonville, Copper Canyon, Corral City, Northlake, and Lantana). Also McKinney in Collin County, and Coppell. (If your city is not listed, please double check with your Town Hall or local Fire Department. It may have been added since this update.)
The Revised CPR Protocol is:
Do Not Move the patient!
Start Chest Compression immediately!
Minimize interruptions in chest compressions
(I.e. attach leads to chest later)
Don’t intubate (insert breathing tubes) for first 6 minutes (Instead use bag-mask
ventilation only.)
Continue CPR for at least 10-20 minutes before moving the patient!
Metronome wrist bands now provided to Emergency Medical personnel help them perform the optimum chest compressions per minute for their patient. (Schools, restaurants, and businesses could easily purchase the wrist metronomes to use in on-site emergency situations requiring CPR.)
What can you do?
(1) Learn CPR.
(2) Ask if your local emergency medical personnel and area hospital use ROC
Guidelines.
And yes. Our Argyle Fire District does follow the latest ROC Protocol!
New CPR Protocol does NOT require Mouth-to-Mouth Contact!
Make learning the new CPR protocol one of your New Year’s Resolutions! It is so simple and easy – but, it saves lives! The Leadership North Texas class received their instruction in December at the Texas Health Resources Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas. Each class member had a new 18” wide by 24” long blow-up plastic mannequin replicating an adult victim’s face and chest. You blew up your individual mannequin and then practiced CPR on it.
You pushed down with the heels of your hands on the “bulls-eye” marked on the mannequin’s chest over the sternum’s location. If you pushed down with enough pressure, you heard a responding “click” from inside the mannequin. (If you didn’t press hard enough, there was no reassuring “click” sound.) Tabletop metronomes and wristbands set the rhythm or “beat” for the repeated hand presses on the mannequin’s chest. However, our instructors reassured us that a repeated pressure “beat”, whether faster or slower than a perfect chest compression rhythm, is still far more beneficial than no pressure presses at all on the victim’s chest over his sternum. Remember – the goal is to physically force oxygen carrying blood to the victim’s brain and vital organs.
When deflated these individual soft mannequins fit in a small box, approximately 8 x 12 x 2 inches in size. The box, with portable mannequin stored inside, can be taken back to your home or office where you can share the CPR method you learned with your family and/or co-workers.
Our Denton County Emergency Services District #1 and Argyle Fire District are co-sponsoring a free CPR class
Our Emergency Services District #1 and Argyle Fire District are co-sponsoring a free CPR class to the first 24 participants who call 940-464-7102 to reserve a place. The class will be held Saturday, Feb 21st, from 9-1 at the Argyle Fire Station located at 511 S. Gibbons Road (on the southeast corner of the intersection with FM 407). Instructors will be certified by the American Heart Association and will cover infant, child, and adult CPR techniques.
Argyle Fire District secretary Marlene Tackett will call each class participant the day before to verify attendance. If you must cancel out, please let her know so that someone else on the waiting list can participate in the limited class size. ESD#1 and AFD plan to offer the CPR class twice in 2015, in February and again in August. Eventually the Argyle Fire District hopes to have enough American Heart Association certified instructors to offer the CPR class once a month.
Denton professional firefighter David Becker also offers to go to churches, schools, and offices to provide AHA certified CPR classes on-site. (As a private business, Becker does this during his off-duty time and for a fee.) Churches that offer child daycare use his services, and some school districts also offer the on-site CPR classes to new teachers. Individual CPR classes would also be worthwhile projects for Boy Scouts and Venture Scouts, sports teams, National Honor Societies, and other adult and student volunteer and civic organizations.
Leadership North Texas “Ebola Recipient” Texas Health Resources Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas.
Leadership North Texas held its December class at the Texas Health Resources Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas. Yes, the same hospital that received the initial Ebola patient in the United States. And yes, we did see firsthand the Emergency Ward constructed to isolate the first Ebola patients. The hospital’s engineers constructed temporary walls that isolated the four rooms and connecting hallway that housed the three patients exposed to Ebola and one decontamination room for hospital personnel to abandon clothing and disposable medical equipment that had been used in that area.
The administrative nurse in the Trauma Area said how hard it had been for the hospital staff to operate in the relentless glare of publicity. Approximately 40 media vans were parked around the hospital 24/7 for weeks. She said the glare of the van lights at night was like being in the center of a sports arena during a major event! The other challenge was complying with “Ebola protocols” which changed daily, as better methods of containing the virus were devised.
On the ground level of the hospital was a huge receiving area for ambulances and emergency vehicles. The area had been completely sealed off from the rest of the hospital and grounds. The arriving vehicles were totally decontaminated before they could leave the sealed off facility. All personnel had to abandon all clothing and disposable medical equipment and be personally decontaminated BEFORE they could leave the sealed off area.
What was encouraging were the walls in the hospital’s public Reception Rooms. The walls were covered with huge poster boards and banners from other hospitals in the metroplex. On them were personal hand written “Notes of Support” from the doctors, nurses, and staff of other area hospitals! A recognition of the fact that “there but for the grace of God go I” – coming from other hospitals in North Texas!
Our Argyle Fire District is already prepared to handle Ebola and other Contagious Viruses
Fire Chief Mac Hohenberger reassured the Argyle Fire District Board that our professional firefighters, paramedics, and volunteers had already been trained in responding to contagious viruses such as Ebola. And the protective gear they might need was already in-house. In addition, AFD and other area fire departments had also contracted to use Dallas’ special ambulances, which were already equipped to transport patients with contagious conditions. Each ambulance was dispatch-ready and lined inside with impermeable plastic sheets to contain any contagious virus. This meant that our AFD’s regular ambulances, and those of other area fire departments, would not have to be taken out of regular service to transport a possible Ebola victim.
College Scholarship Applications available to Town Seniors on Friday, January 30th. Deadline for submittal is Friday March 27th 3:00 p.m. at Town Hall. Scholarships announced Sunday afternoon April 26th at Appreciation Event at Mayor’s Home for Copper Canyon’s graduating High School Seniors and their Families.
College Scholarship Applications: College Scholarship Applications will be available to graduating Town seniors at Town Hall on Friday January 30th. (Town Hall office hours are from 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Monday through Friday.) We also leave a copy of the Copper Canyon Scholarship Application with the Counselors at each relevant high school. We award $4,000 total divided among up to 6 scholarships, ranging in amounts from $1,000 to $500.
To be eligible for a scholarship award, the senior must: (1) be a resident of Copper Canyon, (2) graduating from high school this spring, and (3) already accepted at a four year university, a community college, or a recognized technical institute. Deadline for submitting the completed Application to Town Hall is 3:00 p.m. Friday, March 27th. (Seniors can be graduating from a public or private high school or home schooled.) For questions call Town Hall (940) 241-2677 and hit 0 for a live person. Or email Donna Welsh at [email protected].
Scholarship applicants should start immediately acquiring the required documents, such as current high school transcripts. Also, written resumes may take time to acquire, especially from teachers and coaches, as these individuals are being approached by many students for written endorsements within a very compressed time frame.
We also award a $100 scholarship to each additional graduating senior in Town, who elected not to compete for the larger scholarship awards. In addition, each graduating Copper Canyon Senior also receives a full size Texas flag with a certificate in their name certifying that the flag actually flew over our State Capitol in Austin. The flags are a gift arranged by courtesy of our State Legislator Tan Parker and his Executive Assistant Trish Robinson.
Senior Photos: Friday March 27th is also the deadline for all graduating seniors to bring a Senior Photo of themselves to Town Hall. The photo must be in color and of at least 300 dpi high resolutions to reproduce crisply. It can be a formal portrait or a casual photo. A collage of the 2015 senior photos will be mounted in our Council Chambers in Town Hall! (The original photo provided will be returned to each senior.)
Identifying Graduating Seniors: We always have a challenge identifying every graduating high school senior who lives in Copper Canyon. Some attend Lewisville ISD’s Marcus, some attend Denton ISD’s Guyer, some attend Liberty Christian, and some are home schooled. (For privacy reasons, the high schools will not give us the names of the seniors living in Copper Canyon.)
Last year we had 17 graduating seniors. This year we have only identified seven. If you know of any additional possible graduating seniors living in Copper Canyon, please notify Town Hall 940-241-2677 Ext #0. Parents and students may know of graduating seniors from sports teams, band, Honor Societies, Scouts, church groups, etc. We also welcome the names of students who will graduate next year in 2016 or even in 2017. We try to keep an “advance” list of future high school graduates living in our Town.
Fourth Annual Spring Event Honoring Graduating Seniors and Scholarship Winners: The reception Sunday afternoon April 26th at Mayor’s Home (835 Orchid Hill Lane) will honor all graduating seniors and their families! Parents, brothers and sisters, grandparents, and even aunts-uncles-and favorite cousins are welcome!
Our Copper Canyon Hostess Committee, ably chaired by Pris Johnson, provides a wonderful smorgasbord of homemade hors d’oeuvres and desserts. And we always welcome any contribution of a guest’s specially prepared dish. One of the special treats in the past has been homemade sausage made and cooked by Town residents Patti and Andre Nicholas! As those of you who have attended before know, this special Senior Appreciation Event does not “just happen”. It takes a lot of effort from Copper Canyon’s much appreciated volunteers and Staff to make this Senior Event the success it has traditionally been!
Town resident and professional photographer Bill Castleman also volunteers his services for this event. Last year Bill took outstanding photos of each senior and scholarship winner individually and with his/her family as a group! These photos are of incredible quality. We will email digital copies of the photos to individual seniors prior to Mother’s Day, Sunday May 10th. Bill has generously allowed his professional photographs to be reproduced by the respective senior and/or parent.
Anonymous Judging: The Scholarship Committee consists of three Town residents and two individuals who are not Copper Canyon residents. The identity of our Scholarship Judges is not known until the Awards Ceremony. And, the Judges do not know who the scholarship applicants are, where they live in Copper Canyon, or who their parents are. This allows the judging to be “blind” as to the identity of the individual applicants. The Scholarship Awards will be announced and presented at the Senior Appreciation Event!
Scholarship Funding: The scholarships are funded by individual and/or business donors, which we recruit. Any amount contributed to the College Scholarship Fund, no matter how small, is most welcome. Copper Canyon residents, family members, friends, and businesses can contribute in their name or anonymously. Donations are charitable deductions on federal income tax returns. The Town Secretary will provide Town-issued receipts for income tax purposes. State law does not allow municipalities to use their revenue from fees and property taxes for scholarships. But not-for-profit towns can accept donations for a specific purpose or award. (Copper Canyon definitely operates “in the black,” but “for profit” has never even remotely been considered.)
College Scholarships were originally funded by sales of the Town Cookbook.
Initial sales of the Copper Canyon Cookbook funded our first college scholarships. But, of the 250 limited editions of the Cookbook, only 24 are left.
The original Cookbook, in loose leaf notebook form, had 382 recipes by 148 contributing cooks. The first Holiday Update has an additional 235 recipes by an additional 48 new contributing cooks! The three new sections are Feed-a-Bunch, Seafood, and Wild Game. Hunters in Copper Canyon enthusiastically contributed their favorite game recipes – including former resident and current Hilton Anatole Hotel chef Joseph Chiles. And, we are very pleased that Chef Charles Youts of The Classic in Roanoke, Texas kindly allowed us to include some of his Wild Game recipes from live evening cooking classes he has conducted on the subject!
The remaining original Cookbooks can be purchased at Town Hall for $25 each (cash, check, or credit card accepted). The two Holiday Updates are available for an additional $20. One of the most popular sections of the original cookbook contained color photographs of Town residents. The Holiday Updates also have more of the popular photographs, including photos of Copper Canyon seniors and scholarship winners from the 2012, 2013 and 2014 graduating classes!
Note: No Town funds or staff’s time was used in the creation of the original Cookbook or the Holiday Updates. The cookbook was compiled by Town volunteers on the Cookbook Committee and editing and publication costs were covered by charitable and advertising contributions.
Annual Santa Party for Copper Canyon Kids a huge success!
Town Hall was “packed” with Copper Canyon kids and parents enjoying our annual Santa Party. Thanks to Town resident and AFD Fire Chief Mac Hohenberger for again making the Argyle Fire District fire engine available for rides. And as always, thanks to our longtime Residents and Volunteer Firefighters: Jeff Mangum, our Mayor Pro Tem – and Will Travis, our Denton County Sheriff! (Travis always volunteers to shepherd the small children and their parents riding atop the fire engine – often a very frigid assignment!)
For two of the past three years David Berry, our Sheriff’s Deputy assigned to Copper Canyon, has been our Santa Claus. We have received many compliments from Town parents on how kind and gentle Officer Berry is to small children on their first personal encounter with Santa. (Berry has his own small son, so he intuitively knows how to put small children at ease.) Last year Town Resident Larry Boltz was our Santa for the event. Larry has done so before – and he, too, has a small daughter, so he is a warm and caring Santa for our small children. This year Peter Vickery, who actually grew up in Copper Canyon, was our Santa Claus – and a very kind and welcoming one to all the small children who approached him! Thank you, Peter! You were a very gracious Santa! And, I hope it didn’t get too warm inside that red velvet suit!
Marnie Peterson, Town Resident and mother of several small children, specifically thanked the Town for the Santa Party! She said it was so nice to be able to take her children to visit with Santa – and not have them stand in a long line and wait for hours to do so! We have tried to make our Santa Party a “welcoming” one without a lot of stress and hassle. So, it was also nice to see several new Town residents participating in our traditional Santa Party with their children: Travis and Allie Hunt and their beautiful infant daughter, Jeremy and Janae Newton and their three daughters, and Lauren Bruington and hers and Mark’s three daughters!
Thanks go to Town Administrator Donna Welsh for again organizing the Santa Party and ordering the crafts and favors and to Town Secretary Sheila Morales and Municipal Court Clerk Carol McLeod for providing the refreshments and overseeing the festivities! And thanks to the Copper Canyon Women’s Club members Suzanne Boltz and Denise Remfert for decorating the Council Chambers for the Santa Party and for taking candid photos of the children and all attendees!
No Fireworks Incidents in Town over New Year’s Eve Holiday!
Argyle Fire Chief Mac Hohenberger reported “No Fireworks Incidents” in Copper Canyon over the Christmas and New Year’s Holidays! YEA! Thank you to all our Town residents who have voluntarily skipped fireworks within our Town limits! This means no demand on our Argyle Fire District firefighters to put out unnecessary home and grass fires – and – no requirement for our EMTs and Paramedics to respond to minor or serious personal injuries to any of our Town residents from fireworks accidents.
Ten years ago we started using the big 4 x 4 foot square permanent red signs advising residents that fireworks were not allowed within our Town limits – and violations would be subject to fines. The Town’s request was “Please Comply” – and residents have. Thank you so much!
A Personal Christmas Reflection: Every 3rd or 4th year husband Emil and I gather our family for a Christmas card photo. This year we were blessed! Everyone “came home” for Christmas – our three adult children, their two spouses, seven grandkids (ages 22 months to 25 years), a grandson’s girlfriend, and a cousin! We bunked and fed 16 people, three dogs, and two cats for five days in our home! Every bed, couch, cot, blow up mattress, and sleeping bag was used. But the toddler got his own crib and napped and slept privately in our largest walk-in closet!
The three dogs did not always get along. But our daughter’s 5-pound female toy poodle “Lili” growled “trash” to our grandson’s male Schnauzer “Buddy” and our son’s huge male chocolate lab “Baloo” (as in A&M’s Aggie War Hymn – “Hullabaloo, Kaneck! Kaneck!”). Finally both male dogs just left “Lili” alone.
“Baloo” also heard our neighbors Shawn and Erin Gaudet’s dogs barking next door and proceeded to go “visit” them uninvited. (The Gaudets were so nice when they called to let us know about their uninvited canine “guest”.) Our adopted two cats basically retreated to the safety of our roof between their feeding times at our back door. But a very large possum strolled by every night to see if there was any leftover cat food in the bowls to snack on.
Meals were a lot of fun and a lot of laughter! Everyone alternated between cooking and KP duty! Son Emil and cousin Sabra brought Czech kolaches from the towns of West and Rosenberg. Our teenage grandchildren Sydney and Trey from Hutto, Texas also brought 36 eggs freshly laid by their chickens for our breakfasts! Sixteen year old granddaughter Emily baked delicious pumpkin pies! Daughter Tamara baked both huge turkeys, handled the green vegetables, and made sugar cookies for 4 year old grandson Rosson to enjoy decorating! Son-in-law David was awesome! He carved the turkey and baked cornbread, dressing, and a wonderful cheesecake!
My outdoor Christmas lights were as usual – unreliable. The lights on the western end of our two story roof simply refused to stay on. The lights outlining the eastern half of our roof turned on and off like clockwork! The lights inside the five foot tall white plastic individuals in our traditional nativity figurines never lit up. (Probably due to a worn out ancient extension cord.) The Christmas lights in the back yard around our pool had a timetable all their own. They came on around 2 a.m. and off shortly after dawn. Only the owls could appreciate them. Oh well – maybe next year.
But, our 10-foot tall Noble Fir Christmas tree was incredibly beautiful! It had decades old ornaments that each of our three grown children remembered making or giving in years past. Some of the ornaments were tattered and well past their prime – but they had tremendous sentimental value.
In Retrospect: We are certainly not a perfect family. Each of us has our own faults and idiosyncrasies. But we do truly enjoy each other’s company – and we back each other up when life throws us an unexpected challenge. Both Emil’s and my beloved mothers had Alzheimer’s for a decade each at the end of their lives. Both our Dads died prematurely, so none of our children personally knew their wonderful grandfathers. Daughter Tamara was widowed suddenly when hers and husband Camp’s sons were only 5 and 9 years old; but for 14 years as a single mother, she raised two fine sons to manhood. And she is now married to our wonderful new son-in-law David!
Eldest son Emil’s little son Trey was diagnosed with Juvenile Diabetes when he was 18 months old. But Trey is now a strapping, healthy, six foot tall 15-year-old teenager – who takes full responsibility for managing his daily multiple shots of required insulin. We’ve also weathered one adult child’s divorce. I survived a near fatal accident being crushed between two vehicles a year ago, but now walk normally with no pain. Big Emil will have surgery this month to replace his right knee, but is determined to play golf again eight weeks afterwards. He loves being out of doors and the camaraderie of his regular longtime golf buddies David Loupot and Bob Swanbeck.
We live three generations together now in our Copper Canyon home on beautiful wooded acreage, just as my younger brother and I grew up with our parents and grandparents living together in our home in Corpus Christi. We are a family in the most old-fashioned sense of the word – and we genuinely appreciate being so.
P.S. My Christmas card family photo has now belatedly become a Happy New Year card. (I’m behind – as usual. Somehow I always under estimate how long it will actually take me to complete a project!) Someone jokingly asked Emil if the Town paid for our personal Christmas cards, since the envelopes had the Mayor’s return address on them? (I work from our home.) This delighted my husband! For after 10 years, he knows that being a volunteer Mayor is not a financial plus for the incredibly patient spouse. But, as I remind him often, this job doesn’t pay or have financial perks but it keeps me occupied and out of trouble – and the neighbors are just great!
To all who have read this far, Emil and I wish you and your loved ones a very Happy New Year! Sue
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