PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. — Enhanced tactical emergency training for first responders is making them more prepared to respond to the growing risk of active shooter situations, or mass casualty scenarios.
A local organization, D-Dey Response Group, specializes in teaching first responders skills that are used in the military to rescue gravely injured people.
In the last year since the Parkland shooting, the organization trained more than 1300 Palm Beach County firefighters on how to apply tourniquets with the latest methods and equipment.
The goal: stop the bleed, and do so quickly.
D-Dey Response Group is made up of Green Beret’s and combat veterans who have used tourniquets in the field. They’re sharing their knowledge with first responders to make them even more proficient.
On a dummy, instructor Patrick Burroughs demonstrated how he has trained firefighters to apply a tourniquet in 30 seconds. “We approach the patient or victim as quickly as possible,” Burroughs said. “Slow down the bleeding.”
The training dummy is designed to look as realistic as possible to make sure firefighters are well prepared for a real situation. They use a raw steak to model as a gunshot wound to a leg, with bone fragments similar to what first responders might experience when applying a tourniquet in the field.
“This is the difference of somebody living or dying,” Burroughs said.
Palm Beach County Fire Rescue Training and Safety Division Chief, Sean Pamplona, says firefighters practice applying tourniquets every shift. He knows the technique is becoming more and more important.
“Building that muscle memory and knowing what to do in a moment’s notice,” Pamplona said.
Paramedic Tim Ascheman has already used the training to save a life.
“A gentleman was run over by a boat, he was amputated. I was able to put my training to use,” Ascheman described.
Firefighters have always used tourniquets, but the ones they are training on now are military-grade, designed to give them more flexibility.
They can apply it, and leave it, so they can move on to the next victim.
D-Dey Chief Operating Officer Don Deyo says his organization has trained nearly 5,000 people, including civilians, over the last 5-years.
“It started in our kitchen with some fellow Green Berets that I served with,” Deyo said. “I kind of just felt like we have all this experience, this skill set, and we should be passing it on.”
They want to step up everyone’s skills to help save more lives, “so they can increase survivability in these incidents, whether it’s on the battlefield for the military or right here on our own soil.”
In the actual training, firefighters also learn to complete the skills under live fire.
D-Dey is also working on contracting with local schools, including several on the Treasure Coast, to give tourniquet training to teachers.