FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Lawrence County Sheriff's Auxiliary Completes Basic Combat Casualty Care Training with Help from Community

 

Mount Vernon, Missouri - November 11, 2015 - In October, the Lawrence County Sheriff's Auxiliary completed its first Basic Combat Casualty Care (BC3) training for volunteers with financial support from the Mount Vernon Chamber of Commerce and Mid-Missouri Bank. Sheriff's Auxiliary volunteers have been required since its inception to have a minimum of First Aid/CPR/AED certification plus CERT's Disaster Medical Operations training. The BC3 training provides a training elective between Emergency Medical Responder training under the Law Enforcement Academy and Emergency Medical Technician training, but is more narrowly focused on traumatic injuries and situations encountered working alongside law enforcement and in natural disasters.

The BC3 training, which was custom designed for the Sheriff's Auxiliary by National Institute for Emergency Medical Training (NIEMT) instructors Amy and Terry Buffalo, teaches medical techniques to keep a victim alive until paramedics arrive or the victim can be evacuated, as well as situational awareness to provide care in unstable and unsafe conditions. It includes training in whether to provide care in place or get rescuers and victims out, as well as unusual concerns such as working around body armor, other equipment commonly carried by peace officers and other techniques necessary for working in a tactical environment.

An underlying motive for this course was response to the long-term threat of Active Shooter/Hostile Event (AS/HE) situations. Although these events are rare, they are unpredictable and devastating to an unprepared community. School shootings two decades ago created tactical situations where many wounded were not seen by paramedics for over three hours. Medical response times for the 2013 Sparks, Nevada Elementary School incident, by contrast, were measured in minutes because tactical medical responders were organized to provide care alongside peace officers.

The unpredictability of the AS/HE requires trained responders be well-dispersed in the community to ensure availability when and where they are needed. Given the success of this training with the Auxiliary, the BC3 trainers hope to expand it and offer it to the wider emergency response community, including area deputies, after it completes POST certification

The Sheriff's Auxiliary is an all-volunteer unit which provides support to the Sheriff's Office as-needed, particularly for large public events (e.g. Apple Butter Makin' Days), natural disasters, and mass-casualty incidents. They also serve as specially-trained resources for the Sheriff's Office by providing additional patrols, intelligence, chaplaincy and similar areas.

Contact:

Mj. Eric Vought, Commander

evought@lcmoauxiliary.org

240 N Main St., Ste. 10

Mount Vernon, MO 65712

(417) 619-0050