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‘Wear your masks,’ local EMS agencies urge

4 min read
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Katie Anderson/Observer-Reporter

Larry Pollock, executive director of Ambulance & Chair Service, in a file photo from November

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Adobato

Emergency medical services agencies on the frontlines of the coronavirus pandemic urged locals to take COVID-19 seriously.

“When you go out and see somebody without a mask on, that’s insulting to anyone who works in the medical field, because they’re not even trying to help us help them,” said Bob Topper, administrative director of Fayette EMS. “It just weighs on you, and thank God there’s a vaccine coming out. Our workers are tired, and they’re putting themselves at risk.”

Larry Pollock, executive director of Washington County Ambulance and Chair Service, encouraged people to assume everyone they contact is COVID-19 positive, just like he tells his employees. He asked people to wash their hands before and after going out, maintain six feet of distance from people outside the household and wear a mask.

“Masks do save lives, and it’s something we really need to instill in the public,” he said. “We’re all in this together.”

Fayette EMS Chief Rick Adobato said they talk to experts daily and see firsthand the toll of the coronavirus.

“If there’s anything we can say from the EMS side: ‘Please wear your masks. No one is out to take your rights away,'” he said.

Pollock said they transport “dozens” of known or suspected COVID-19 patients every day in Washington County. Adobato said they transport about 10 to 12, and “some days it’s a lot more than that.” Some of the patients are critical, and some die at the hospital.

“It’s absolutely everywhere right now,” he said.

Pollock said he has seen exhaustion in his workers, who also have concerns about contracting the virus or bringing it home to children or seniors in their care. He said they are mindful of fatigue when they are making schedules for their employees.

“I’m just really proud of our health care workers for being resilient. This is a marathon, not a sprint,” he said. “In EMS, we tend to be programmed to seeing people’s worst days, and we deal with that worst day for maybe an hour. This is different. Fatigue is definitely something I see in our EMS workers.”

Topper and Adobato said they are frustrated by people believing social media posts over experts. They said they think people believe what they want to believe about the pandemic, and many people want to believe that things should just return to normal. Adobato said he sees the emotional toll of the pandemic in an increase of mental health and overdose calls, and they, too, wish COVID-19 would just go away.

“There’s no wishing it away. Everyone is tired of it. We’re tired of it. We’re exhausted. The nurses are exhausted. There’s no wishing it away. This is real,” he said. “People walking around without a mask have killed somebody else, and they’re walking around not realizing that they’ve killed somebody else.”

He said the symptoms vary widely, and that young people will likely recover.

“But sometimes it’s absolutely debilitating, and the long-term effects are not yet known,” he said.

Topper questioned whether COVID-19 may be considered a pre-existing condition in the future, and whether it may have long-term health effects, even on young people.

“There are a lot of things to tell people, ‘Hey I need to take this seriously,’ because there are so many unknowns,” he said.

Adobato said the virus is much worse than the flu, which has an annual death toll far less than COVID-19. As of Dec. 6, the coronavirus was attributed to 281,000 deaths in the United States.

“Anybody that thinks it isn’t real, all they need to do is talk to somebody in EMS or somebody in ER,” Topper said.

Both EMS services encouraged people to take an ambulance and go to the hospital if they are sick. Fayette EMS said its calls dropped substantially with people who are waiting longer to get medical attention, and sometimes it is too late. Pollock said they are regularly seeing patients who are much sicker than they were before COVID-19.

“Back in March, everyone was saying, ‘Stay home. Stay home. Stay home.’ But they don’t mean if you’re sick stay home,” Topper said. “Instead of calls for chest pains, we were getting calls for cardiac arrest.”

Both EMS agencies said they have greatly increased their cleaning and sanitizing procedures, along with all EMS services and hospitals. They want people to know it is safe to take an ambulance ride or to be in the emergency room.

“We’re prepared for this,” Pollock said. “That’s something we don’t want people to fear. It’s safe to take an ambulance ride. It’s safe to be in the emergency room.”

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