Salvamed would like to formally offer a handshake of thanks to Janet Brown and her family who recently made a financial donation towards the purchase of a Hi-Lift First Responder Rescue Jack that was recently donated to Comandos de Salvamento and is currently part of their urban extrication squad and saving lives!
Salvamed donated another medium sized first responder hi-lift Jack to the central base of Comandos de Salvamento today in San Salvador. The Jack was given directly to the Urban Extrication Rescue Squad and Executive director Roberto Cruz. Yesterday, Mark also participated in two deep water simulated rescues with the Comandos and the Salvadoran Airforce in order to prepare for the upcoming Holy Week vacation at Majahual Beach.
Salvamed would like to again thank Hi-Lifts Vice President of Sales and Marketing Steve Dowden for getting us a great price on another mid size First Responder Jack that is heading to El Salvador with Mark Hoffman this March 21st. The Jack will be utilized by the Central Base Urban Rescue team of Comandos de Salvamento to extricate patients involved in MVAs and will probably see immediate use during Holy week holidays this April.
Salvamed will also be participating in the yearly simulated shallow and deep water rescues in collaboration with the Salvadoran Airforce and Comandos de Salvamento this March 22nd at Majahual beach near La Libertad.
Salvamed would like to thank Jeff Pugh of the PXTeam for connecting us with a Hurst Donation earlier this year. Father Mike of Prince of Peace Catholic Church in New Mexico was able to store the equipment until the Comandos de Salvamento could come up this last November to pick it up. Father Mike provides a donated Ambulance each year for Salvadoran EMS. CDS drove it overland with all the new equipment. This equipment will be put to good use in saving many lives.
Medic Devin Price of San Diego and three of his colleagues trained 50 CDS First Responders this last Week. Monday and Tuesday was all about ABC’s, CPR and the use of the AED. Wednesday and Thursday focused on trauma; mechanism of injury, definition and recognition of shock and priority vital signs. The remainder of the class is rotating through the c-spine station, extrication and patient packaging/movement through Friday.
Devin was able to obtain donations from the following agencies:
1. The NATIONAL CITY FIRE DEPARTMENT donated 9 “Cardiac Science” AED’s which have a value of about $10,000.
2. American Medical Response (AMR) was kind enough to donate approximately 60 pair of uniform pants in various sizes, the majority of which have never been worn and still had their tags on them.
Devin’s EMS instructors included Cal Cronin, a paramedic from San Diego and also works as an ocean lifeguard in San Diego.
Colton Poore, a paramedic student at Southwestern College in San Diego and is about a month away from finishing up his training.
Corey Leal, a paramedic at AMR and this is his first trip out of the USA.
Comandos de Salvamento Governing Board members Efraim Solis and Roberto Cruz are always content with the level of professionalism and spirit of Solidarity that Devin has been offering Comandos for over 14 years.
Salvamed has mediated a HURST donation for the Comandos de Salvamento Urban Rescue Squad! We thank Jeff Pugh of PXTEAM whom Salvamed introduced to CDS last December for the First National Extrication workshop. Jeff informed us that the Comandos have, “a heart of a Lion” and was impressed with the amount of work they do using run down broken equipment. Jeff then contacted Paul Felegy, the Central America Regional Sales Manager of HURST Jaws of Life who then donated a SP510 Spreader, R422 Ram, S311 Cutter, a P650 Quad machine and 1 Case of High Pressure fluid. The estimated price for this gear new is between 20-30k! HURST will ship the equipment to Prince of Peace Catholic Church in Albuquerque our contact Father Mike Shea who will store it until Comandos come pick it up later this year. Congratulations CDS and thanks HURST!
Salvamed would like to thank PXTEAM members Jeff Pugh, Charlie Kemp, Anthony John, Andrew Krasner, Agustin, and Ryan Taylor for making todays class a great success. The course included students from the Green Cross, Bomberos Nacionales, Comandos de Salvamento, and the National Civilian Police branch of the UMO, Unidad de Mantenimiento de Orden. Knowledge acquired focused on scene size up, stabilization, and how to safely use hydraulic and manual tools. All teams represented today are included on the recently developed National USAR team.This workshop would not have been made possible without the combined forces of Salvamed, PXTEAM, Glasswing International along with Hi-Lift vice president Steve Dowden who donated a First Responder Jack last year and contributed another for this class. Salvamed has now paved the way for future possible business agreement and sponsorship of El Salvador rescue groups from HURST, RINGERS, AJAX, and HI-LIFTamong others.
We have finally mediated and secured 6 members of the Puyallup Extrication Team to go to El Salvador the first week of December to offer their 200 level of basic extrication! Joint efforts are being coordinated by in country support Glasswing International but we are in desperate need of some Hi-lift First Responder Jacks and other funding for the 2 day course that will teach over 60 Comandos and members of the National Civilian Police, Bomberos Nacionales, Green Cross, and the Red Cross. We only have 2 months left so we are trying to crowdfund through indieagogo. http://igg.me/p/557206/x/5051583 Please donate.
