Spring Break Puts Panama, Florida EMS to The Test

March 17--PANAMA CITY BEACH -- Police officers managed to get the patient out to the parking lot to meet with paramedics before he lost control of his bladder while two people kept him on his feet. He couldn't stand on his own. He couldn't answer questions.

Thirty minutes before he was loaded onto a stretcher and into an ambulance, the patient had been passed out on the front steps of Club LaVela. No one had yet called paramedics, who were busy trying to find a guy who had a bleeding head wound from a fight.

Both took trips to the hospital. By the time the ambulance pulled away from the parking lot, EMS Director Corky Young, who was one of three paramedics to treat the young man, was cruising down Thomas Drive with lights flashing and sirens blaring. On to the next call.

First responders are put to the test during Spring Break, and paramedics and EMTs are no exception. The Luke Bryan concert at Spinnaker Beach Club Tuesday afternoon was a stress test of sorts for the Bay County Emergency Medical Services.

Untold thousands of spring breakers crammed the beach from the stage to the water, making it difficult for first responders to get to the many who got too drunk and passed out, or got beat up in a fight, or stepped on broken glass.

In 24 hours Tuesday, paramedics and EMTs responded to a total number of calls -- 136 -- more typical for an entire three-day weekend, said Emergency Services Communications Manager Brian Hardin.

Compare the demand for medical care to the resources available -- EMS has seven ambulances, two supervisors with vehicles and two "floating" ambulances responding throughout Bay County, and Panama City Beach Fire Department personnel trained as paramedics -- and it's hard to see how first responders kept up. (Bay EMS also has a mutual aid agreement with Lifeguard, a private ambulance service.)

"I'm sure we maxed out a couple times yesterday," Hardin said Wednesday at the Bay County EMS dispatch center, where he is a supervisor. "If you need help, though, they're always ready."

How can that be?

First of all, the most common ailments that befall spring breakers are things like nausea and vomiting from alcohol poisoning, or cuts and bruises from fighting or falling, Hardin said. Most cases aren't severe enough to require hospitalization.

"It's more about getting people to the patient," said Young. "Even though we don't get a box -- ambulance -- to them, that doesn't mean there's not a first-responder."

Firefighters with medical training are often better positioned to respond to medical emergencies, so dispatcher Rainbow Thacker will send them to a call along with an ambulance. If the PCBPD paramedics get there first and determine the ambulance won't be needed they can cancel the response.

From the Emergency Operations Center in Southport, Thacker can look at one of the six computer monitors at her work station and know where an available paramedic is at any given time.

Thacker urges the medics in the ambulances to contact the emergency room on the way so the hospital can get ready. If the hospital's not ready for an ambulance, the medics have to wait around until the patient can get a room.

"Every second helps to get set up and ready to go," Thacker said.

In certain instances, ambulances can even double-up and take two patients to the hospital at the same time. Time is of the essence, because on days like Tuesday, every second spent with one patient is a second another patient has to wait for help, and it's not like EMS can post everyone on the beach; they still have most of the rest Bay County to cover.

Young and Hardin said medics can handle what spring breakers throw at them; they'll help the people who need it.

"We will pick you up if you've got a hangnail," Hardin said. "If you want to go to the hospital we will take you to the hospital."