Mercy Air takes 1st place at California Fire EMS Disaster Paramedic competition

INDIAN WELLS, Calif. (VVNG.com) — The Mercy Air team participating at this year’s California Fire EMS Disaster Paramedic competition in Indian Wells took the first place award.

Mercy Air Flight Paramedics James Aeschliman and Jose Orozco from Mercy 22, in Hesperia, competed against Chino Fire Department’s Paramedics, the first place winners of last year.

Teams of two’s handled several mock emergency scenarios where they were judged on their performance.

Mark A. Driscoll with Mercy Air told Victor Valley News the scenario this year was to rescue a diver who at 160′ was impaled by a stingray.

Driscoll said the diver made an emergency ascent, causing him to suffer from burst eardrums and a collapsed lung. “The Mercy crew arrived and entered the swimming pool, retrieved the patient and immediately began their life-saving work!”

“Mercy has a well-earned reputation for providing the highest level of critical care within the air medical community.  The Annual Paramedics Competition replicates a real time emergency and winning the competition is an outstanding achievement by James and Jose.  All of us at Mercy Air are extremely proud of their accomplishment,” stated Driscoll.

Last years scenario involved a construction worker that had been badly burned by a high voltage line.

The CFED Paramedic Competition is a challenging and educational clinical competition. The preliminary competition challenges paramedic teams to appropriately assess and provide quality, efficient patient care during three realistic scenarios. The top two teams move on to the final competition, a 20-minute high-energy scenario that requires managing patients in a live high-pressure scenario.

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