WESLEY CHAPEL, Fla. — When a trauma call comes in, every moment matters, so on Monday, Tampa Bay-area paramedics built on their life-saving skills to learn how to better care for patients with certain injuries on the way to the hospital.
“On trauma calls, we’re really against the clock. Time is of the essence, per se,” said Maurice Ferguson.
Ferguson is a paramedic with Tampa Fire Rescue and sees a lot on the job.
"Patients who might've been in car accidents or patients who might have (fallen) off a ladder or roof or something,” said Ferguson.
Now, Ferguson and other first responders are expanding on what they already know through brain and spine training at AdventHealth Wesley Chapel.
The goal is to equip first responders with life-saving techniques and knowledge to help treat people with a head injury, stroke, epilepsy, brain tumor, and spine trauma care on the way to the hospital.
"The most important thing would be to identify what are their risks and what are the signs of danger so they can take action,” said Dr. Raul Olivera, a neurosurgeon with AdventHealth Wesley Chapel.
Dr. Olivera is helping lead the class. He said if you don’t do the right things in the field or on the way to the hospital, it might be too late by the time a patient arrives.
"If you do the right things to preserve the most brain-healthy until you get the treatment that you need and you avoid the progression of the stroke, or you avoid the progression of the coma, or you avoid the progression of the seizures, you can either save the patient's life by taking measures there or preserve the best condition in the brain to when the patient gets to the hospital,” said Dr. Olivera.
Ferguson weighed in on how a class like this will help develop critical on-the-job skills in an effort to give patients the best outcomes.
"I feel like this class can help us identify what's going on and help us get a better understanding of the physiological aspect of what's going on in those traumatic injuries,” said Ferguson.
