On 9/8/2015, The Magnolia Rotary Club took a tour of the Magnolia EMS Station #40 located on FM 1488. Pictured in the photo above from left to right are Joshua Cooper (standing), Christopher Goodrich (demonstrating how to feel for breath), and Mitch Ayres.
 
Deborah Rose Miller introduced the Chief Executive Officer of MCHD, Randy Johnson who told eveyone that the Magnolia EMS is part of the Montgomery County Hospital District Emergency Medical Service and provides emergency and non-emergency ambulance transport for the citizens and visitors of Montgomery County, Texas. Covering 1,100 square miles and a population of more than 500,000. The agency responds to about 50,000 calls for assistance each year.
 
Randy Johnson told everyone that the MCHD has worked with the thirteen area responder agencies to insure a seamless, coordinated partnership responding to all fifty thousand 911 calls it receives each year. This focus helped MCHD achieve the “EMS Provider of the Year” award in 2013.  Mr. Johnson has also worked to assure that MCHD provides its services in a transparent, efficient and effective manner.  The Healthcare Assistance Program continues to serve the indigent county residents by contracting services with over 500 physicians, 10 hospitals, and numerous outpatient service centers.  This provides patients excellent care with great value to the tax payers of Montgomery County. Finally, Randy has expanded the County Health Department to provide emergency disaster services, mobile medicine services, and community navigator services.
 
Randy Johnson also told everyone that the MCHD always calls a person who they successfully revived and ask them to come to a "Save Reunion" where the saved person gets to tell what happened and learn from the EMS team what they did to save them. They then celebrate that the person is alive with a cake and some refreshments.
 
Randy Johnson then introduced Christopher Goodrich, Joshua Cooper and Mitch Ayres who gave everyone a demonstration of "Hands Only CPR". Christopher explained that a team of doctors have determined that it is much more important to keep the heart beating than it is to try and breath air into an unconscious person. The new steps to helping an unconscious person are: 1) Have someone call 911, 2) Check if person is breathing by feeling for air coming out of the mouth or noise, 3) Check the cardiac artery for a pulse, and 4) Begin "Hands Only" CPR if there is no breath or pulse. Do not try to breathe air into the victim. The rate of how fast to provide "Hands Only" CPR is about 100 beats per minute. However, this is quite tiring and trained people can only keep it up for about two minutes. Therefore, as soon as one person starts to tire, another should take over until the ambulance arrives. The reason for this is that if the pace of CPR is either too fast or too slow, it doesn't help.
 
The EMS Ambulance also has what is know as a "Lucas Machine" which can provide the CPR process without a person being involved. The EMS team also carries a defibrillator (also known as an AED) that can provide an electrical shock to a victim if needed. The AED is fully automated and even instructs a person on how to operate it once turned on as well as warning everyone around the victim to let go before a shock is given.
 
After the demonstration, various Magnolia Rotary Club members tried their hand at "Hands Only" CPR and found that it was more tiring than they had expected. Afterwards, everyone got a chance to go see the ambulances and get a group photo.
 
 
The EMS Team thanked the Magnolia Rotary Club members for coming by and the Magnolia Rotary Club members thanked the EMS Team for their presentation and hosting them today.
 
Other photos taken at the event are below:
 
             
 
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