Darien Students Complete Post 53 Six-Month Emergency Medical Technician Training

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Final extrication exercise provided realistic traffic accident training in partnership with Noroton Heights Fire Department. Top Row from left to right: Will Olson, Ethan Zhang, Adi Rai, Tate Hanson, Chris VanIngen, Mike Sheehan, Maisie Stewart, Jane Keleghan, Lucie Edwards, Cathy Hunter, Sally Boucher, Kelsey Olvany and Sydney Weibel. Bottom Row: Ryan Plank, Natalie Voltz, Luke Ridder, Belle Neave, Veda Maholtra, Lindsay Smith, Shea Ehrhard, Kinga Srednicka and Isabelle Garrett.

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Twenty-four students completed Darien EMS-Post 53’s intensive six-month EMT training program as the first step to becoming a state-certified EMT.  In addition, two adults completed the course and will join Post 53 as adult advisors.

— an announcement from Darien EMS-Post 53

Post 53, along with Stamford EMS, administered the course, running from October through March for High School sophomores and a few interested adults.  The EMT course is a college level curriculum sanctioned and managed by the state of Connecticut.

Students receive their certification after successfully completing written and practical tests following 170 classroom and observation hours.  The course focuses on medical-related emergencies that occur outside the hospital.

A final extrication exercise provided realistic traffic accident training in partnership with Noroton Heights Fire Department. Top Row from left: Will Olson, Ethan Zhang, Adi Rai, Tate Hanson, Chris VanIngen, Mike Sheehan, Maisie Stewart, Jane Keleghan, Lucie Edwards, Cathy Hunter, Sally Boucher, Kelsey Olvany and Sydney Weibel. Bottom Row: Ryan Plank, Natalie Voltz, Luke Ridder, Belle Neave, Veda Maholtra, Lindsay Smith, Shea Ehrhard, Kinga Srednicka and Isabelle Garrett.

In each case the EMT learns how to handle the patient from assessment to treatment.  Students are taught by qualified instructors and learn all standard EMT skills, including CPR certification.

The EMT class rides along with both the Norwalk and Stamford EMS services, experiencing EMS/field medicine with senior EMS professionals and paramedics, as well as each hospital’s emergency room.

After the class is complete, the instructors help with the certification process. A student must pass the State-administered EMT test to become a practicing EMT.

Students applied all they learned throughout the course to an “extrication” exercise, simulating a serious highway accident where several victims are trapped in overturned vehicles.

Noroton Heights Fire Department participated in the exercise with the EMT class students who faced difficult life-saving situations to get their “victims” safely on their way to the hospital. The drill included use of the fire department’s state-of-the-art rescue equipment.

This is the 40th year the course has been taught at Darien EMS-Post 53. If any adults are interested in becoming an EMT, please contact Susan Ballard atballard@optonline.net.

If any rising 9th graders are interested in taking the first aid class offered in the fall, please visit this Web page on the Post 53 website for the application, due August 1st.

About Darien EMS-Post 53

Founded in 1970, Post 53 provides emergency medical services to the Darien community at the highest level of excellence, using Darien High School students and adult volunteers.

The members of Post 53 are committed to achieving and maintaining the highest level of training and skill in providing pre-hospital care and transport to the citizens of Darien.

Post 53 is recognized locally and nationally as one of the finest emergency ambulance services in the United States, for its consistently high quality of pre-hospital emergency care.

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