Incident Commander

When I woke up this morning, if you had told me what I would have been doing today I would not have believed it. I started out as expected. John came over and helped me load up all my trash from the boxes that I have been going through the last few nights. I have been getting rid of a lot of things that I don’t need, but I have held onto over the years. Anyway, John and I went to the dump and threw everything away. Then we went to my office and he helped me get a couple more items from there and dropped them off at the house.

We went inside and just hung out for a while we were talking about Pullman fire and the divide between the reserves and career guys. We talked about the union and their position on things as well as how Moscow Ambulance covers Pullman when there are no career guys left to cover the city. I told John that I thought it is strange the union would argue that a reserve cannot run the ambulance but at the same time allow a volunteer from a different state cover the city. John argued that the volunteers have experience running the ambulance but the reserves don’t. That I would be one of the only reserves who would be able to do what is necessary to run the ambulance and only because of my experience from Colfax. John said he felt I was experienced.

After John left I headed to Colfax to work on my coroner’s report and printing the photos from the case I had on Thanksgiving night. I was in the Coroner’s Office printing the photos and typing up the report for about an hour and a half. I got everything completed and was starting to gather up all the case files for this case and organize it when Pete showed up. I went through the photos with him and he agreed with me about my findings. I took off and went to Rosauers to get some pop and my plan was to go to Colfax Fire and hang out for a few hours because I wanted to relax from all the moving stuff I have been doing over the last two weeks.

Jim was working and we just were talking about the weather, with the snow coming, plus the case I had on Thanksgiving, as he was a responder to that case. It had been a little over an hour when a call came in for a roll-over accident. I was shotgun with Carl driving. We got on scene and pretty much were cancelled by Squad Eleven-Thirty-Five who was first on scene. We went back to the station.

Carl left, David, Craig, and I hung out with Jim. We were there for about twenty minutes or more. We were watching some TV and talking about the call. Plus we were listening in to WSP and Colfax PD going to slide off after slide off in the S-Curves outside of Colfax. The snow was not falling too much, but it was cold and things were getting slick. Then Craig mentioned that we should get some food before we get too busy. I said that if you eat, go to the bathroom and are totally ready for the call they will not happen.

I said that as I sat on the couch thinking about how bad I needed to go to the bathroom. But no sooner than that we hear tones. A two car injury accident the S-Curves south of Colfax. David jumped in the drivers seat, I took shotgun and Craig got in the back. I was going to wait for Carl to show up, but then I hear someone was unconscious so we hit the road.

As we were en route I thought about the number of patients and what we would see. I told Whitcom to make sure Rescue Eleven was going to be responding, so they toned out Rescue Eleven. When we were getting closer we were told it was near Huber. We could see the car accident as we rounded the last corner. I had been thinking about my size up and what to do when we got close to the scene. Dispatch advised us that we had something and one code black. I cannot even remember what the “something” was because when the words code black were thrown at me I did not have time to think about it more than someone died. I had to get on the air and give a size up. I could see a big suburban and a small car. I Suburban had eating the small car. I could see the deceased in the front seat of the small car. I saw people gathered around the backseat of the small car. I saw someone in the front seat of the Suburban. I gave my size up, but I lost my train of thought with all the things I was thinking about at once. I cannot even remember my whole size up. I had a nearly impossible time saying who I was and what I was naming command.

I went to the car at first and tried to open the door of the back seat. It was jammed. I wanted to make sure it was unlocked. David could not get to it from the front because of the deceased. The EMT who happened on the scene was not able to get the door unlocked. We needed extrication.

The small car was handled by the people there so I went to the suburban and started to talk to the people there. Seeing they were not really badly injured I knew they were green. I went back to the small car briefly. In that time the people had moved around in the Suburban. I went to the passenger side where the driver was now sitting. I spoke with him briefly. I told him that someone would be coming to do patient care. Ambulance Eleven-Two was coming on scene. I took Milt with me to a truck where the others from the Suburban were sitting. I had the others go to the guy in the Suburban.

With my nerves jumping and the cold weather I has shivering really badly. My teeth were chattering and I was trying to see what was wrong with the patient, if anything. I talked to them and they seemed okay for the most part. I went back to the Suburban. The guy agreed to go to the hospital, but he did not want to go by ambulance. The driver of the Suburban agreed to go to the hospital. When I was explaining that to the driver of the Suburban, Jenny, who was holding C-Spine was shaking her head “no” because of the mechanism of injury she felt they had to go by ambulance. I went back towards the truck. During this part I was not really thinking I was command even though I initiated command. Then Milt sort of inadvertently got me into command-mode. He started to ask me about what resources we had and what I should call for. I knew that if all the patients were to be transported we would have two red, and three green. Which would mean four ambulances. One red would have a prolonged extrication and the green were ready to go if we could convince them to go.

While I was thinking about resources I knew I needed another ambulance. I asked Whitcom in Albion Ambulance was en route. They told me it was. One red was already en route to the hospital. I soon got word Whitman Community was putting us on divert. So all additional patients needed to go to Pullman. I contacted the people with the car and tried to find out about the patient who was still in the car. I was told the patient appeared to be in bad shape. I knew we needed MedStar but I was not sure if it could fly. I contacted Whitcom and asked them MedStar’s status. I was told they could fly. I said to launch them and have them go to Whitman Community hospital for the LZ. I told Albion Ambulance when they arrived where to park. We got two patients with Albion and one in Ambulance Eleven-Two. Now I only had one patient. I also had Paul-Sixty-Five put on alert. About two minutes later I got a call from Whitcom. I saw the number and knew what they were doing. I answered the phone and they were putting me on stand by. I informed them I was IC and that they needed to put Patti on stand by.

Rescue Eleven’s crew and some of the others who were on scene were working on getting the Suburban lifted and the patient extricated. I got called on the radio by Scott to see if we needed him up at the scene. I told him we needed ILS and had him come. He came POV. He started an IV and did patient care. We were trying to find out where MedStar was and they were getting close, but extrication was taking a long time. The Suburban had T-boned the car at a slight angle. The drivers wheel was on top of the patient in the back seat. It was ge
tting dark and we were still working on everything. I was not cold anymore. I was quite comfortable in an odd way because it was cold outside, but I still needed to go to the bathroom really bad.

Ambulance Eleven-One was back and Ambulance Eleven-Three out of Steptoe had been called to assist on another accident that happened. It turned out to be non-injury so they asked if we needed them at the scene. We had all the people we needed and had no ambulance in the city. I told them to go to Colfax Fire and stand by for additional calls.

We had the Suburban cribbed and using airbags to get it lifted high enough, but we were starting to run out of cribbing. Carl asked me if we could remove the deceased. That is not something that is done unless there is a good reason. I asked if it was necessary for the rescue operation. He said it was. I told him the living that priority. So I said that we could remove the deceased. I took a bunch of photos for the coroner as the deceased was removed. All of a sudden a loud noise happened and I saw the Suburban break some cibbing and the airbags came out and the Suburban fall back into its original position. We called for a tow truck to help. When it got on scene we had it lift the Suburban.

MedStar then wanted to know if we were nearly ready for them because they wanted to transport the first red patient. I contact the people doing the extrication and they said they were close. I was then told they wanted to know in minutes how long. I asked Scott and he said if they need to leave send a second bird. I told that to Whitcom. Within about seven or eight minutes the second patient was free and I told Whitcom we were transporting the patient to hold the bird if it had not left.

We were finally in clean up mode. We were done. Chief Krause pulled me aside for a moment. He said that he did not take command from me because he thought I was doing a good job. He let me know I had done a good job. I had been asked by State Patrol how long the coroner would take. I said she was coming from Garfield. They asked if we could have the coroner coming. That was a while back and I had the coroner en route. She arrived just after we got the last patient free. I told her what happened and she started her investigation. We cleared the scene and I terminated command. It had been nearly an hour and a half since the incident started that we had the final patient freed.

I went to Colfax fire and took the camera to the coroners office to download the photos for Patti. I went back to Colfax fire and spoke with the people there for a few minutes. Scott said that I had done a good job. Then I went to the funeral home to work with Patti there. The deceased had massive injuries. Following the time at the funeral home Patti and I went to the coroners office to print photos and she wrote her report.

I finally left the coroners office around nine-thirty at night. I took a body bag to the ambulance to replace the one we had used from there. Then I went to Pullman. But as I got to Colfax Body I saw the cars and state patrol there. I stopped in and spoke to the trooper. I got a copy of the drivers license and looked at the car some more. It was amazing, a miracle that the patient in the back passenger side even lived.

I went to Pullman and then to Whitcom. I showed Jamie the photos from the wreck. We talked about it and how the whole scene went. I spoke to the other dispatchers who were also there for part of the wreck. I stayed at Whitcom for a couple hours unwinding and talking with them about various calls and learning more about how they dispatch things.

That was my first time being command through out a major incident. Normally I can stay command on Pullman calls if it turns out to be a small call, like a fire alarm. Many times I initiate command but it is taken from me as soon as someone else arrives. I have been thinking about all the things I did not do that I probably should have done. Nothing affected the outcome that I did “wrong”. It wasn’t necessarily bad, it would have been better form if I had done certain things. When Scott got there I should have put him incharge of a patient care group. And I should have put Carl or Krause in charge of the extrication group. That is pretty much what had happened anyway, but I did not verbalize those things. I just wish I had verbalized them. I should have had someone on safety detail as well. I was doing that job myself. I made sure that I mitigated the things that I saw that needed to be done for safety. It was a great experience. I had five patients, two car, extrication, cops, the coroner, and multiple agencies and rigs that I was dealing with. Everything happened that needed to happen and things went pretty smooth considering what we were working with.