Officials from Lifeguard Ambulance Service – which provides emergency medical services throughout Lamar County – saw another busy December, with 456 calls for service and a total of 363 transports.
During that month, the organization’s response time to emergency calls in urban areas was 9 minutes and 5 seconds, while non-emergency calls to those areas had a response time of 10 minutes and 59 seconds. In rural areas, response times to emergency calls averaged 12 minutes and 12 seconds, with non-emergency calls averaging 13 minutes and 43 seconds.
“Primary calls for the month were medical, trauma and shortness of breath,” Lifeguard EMS Chief Ben Sones said during a recent update to the Lamar County Board of Supervisors.
Sones said Lifeguard officials took the opportunity to conduct training with local fire departments regarding first aid and were also able to reach out to some community health centers with that measure.
The organization conducted cardiac life support, pediatric advanced life support and CPR training for all its employees.
“In the month of December, I was able to add some to our education department,” Sones said. “We were able to buy adult, pediatric and infant mannequins that have lifelike anatomy, so (emergency medical technicians) can practice new skills that they don’t do every day, as far as putting tubes down their throat and IVs.
“Also, we have some bone marrow needles that they can practice with on the mannequins, and we have a generator now that shows different heart rythms so they can practice on those. And we were able to get a lot of literature and video aids to help with their training.”
Currently, Lifeguard is fully staffed, with the recent hires of five new employees, including one full-time paramedic and a part-time paramedic.
December’s call and transport numbers are slightly up from the 446 requests and 349 transports in December 2018, which was considered the busiest month of that year for Lifeguard.
In addition to Lamar County, Lifeguard Ambulance Service also provides services in areas of Texas, Oklahoma, Illinois, Tennessee, Florida, Alabama and South Carolina.
“We think that Lifeguard is doing an outstanding job,” Lamar County Administrator Jody Waits said in a previous story. “In particular, we think Ben Sones is doing an excellent job as the chief.
“We’re very happy with the service they provide and the relationship that we have with them in Lifeguard. It’s a partnership, and (Sones) functions seamlessly with the county, which is what makes it successful.”
