Town Topics
1 July 1981

MAY WAS A BUSY MONTH

For Rescue Squad. During May, the Princeton First Aid & Rescue Squad was involved in a number of non-urgent undertakings in addition to its regular call load.

Among these were demonstrations of equipment or procedures to students at the New Grange School, Johnson Park School, Nassau Presbyterian Nursery School, and All Saints-Trinity Nursery School. Squad members taught Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation courses at Stuart Country Day School and at the squad house. In addition, a dozen of the Squad’s members participated in a joint drill with Kingston First Aid Squad on extrication of accident victims from motor vehicles.

Also, last month, the Squad hosted a drill on procedures involved in assisting paramedics. This covered such items as the use of the telemetry radios, taking a history and patient assessment, and how to prepare materials for the paramedic to’establish an intravenous line.

The Squad responded to 116 calls during May, 101 of which were emergency dispatches. Eight were routine transports, including one from Elmer, N.J. to Princeton Hospital. Forty-six of the calls were in the Borough, 59 in the Township, and 11 were mutual aid calls or transports outside of the area.

In 17 of the emergency calls, circumstances warranted the establishment of telemetry communications with the hospital and, in most cases, starting an intravenous line to permit the use of intravenous or medications. Usually the patient’s cardiogram was sent to the hospital via telemetry. Among the cases involving such “advanced life support” procedures were five people with chest pain, a six- year-old boy run over by a truck, three teenage boys injured (one mortally) in a motor vehicle accident, a woman mortally injured in a fall, a woman with a severe internal hemmorhage, a woman with a cerebral hemmorhage, a young woman who took a near-fatal overdose of medication, and a woman with extreme difficulty breathing.

The Squad’s rescue and lighting equipment was used in the recovery of the bodies of the two young men who drowned in Rocky Hill, and at the scene of several motor vehicle accidents.

Squad vehicles were driven 1250 miles during May and members put in 540 hours actually on calls. The 116 total calls for the month represents the busiest May in the Squad’s history.