"Every 15 Minutes"

Normally, we never know when we will be called to the next fatal or serious injury crash.  However, that wasn’t the case on March 15, when Rescue Squad crews knew well in advance that they would be responding to a simulated DUI car crash in the parking lot at Walt Whitman High School as part of the “Every 15 Minutes” program.

Traffic crashes are the leading cause of death among children, youth, and young adults, accounting for more than a third of all teenage deaths.  In order to better educate its students on the very real dangers of drinking and driving, once every 4 years, Whitman high school devotes 2 school days to the “Every 15 Minutes” program.  Staging a mock crash is one important element of the program.  The entire Senior class observed the operation in person, and the remainder of the student body viewed it by live feed into classrooms.

On this day, Rescue Squad volunteers staffed Rescue Squad 741 Bravo and Medic 741 Echo.  Working in conjunction with Montgomery County Police and the Glen Echo Fire Department, the emergency vehicles arrived on scene to find a single vehicle car crash with five “occupants.”  Of the five, two were “Dead on Arrival” one was the “DUI Driver” and the other two were priority-one multi-system trauma patients.

Using skills that typically would be expected on an actual car crash scene of this severity, the squad and medic crews extricated and provided advanced emergency medical care to the simulated patients. The squad crew stabilized the vehicle using step chocks and popped the door open using spreaders.  They cut the door hinges to completely remove the door and then cut off the roof using hydraulic cutters so that there would be complete access to the patient compartment.  They then used hydraulic rams to push the dashboard away from the floor in order to free the patient’s legs and feet.

The two priority-one patients were “transported” to the Trauma Center at Suburban Hospital by Medic 741 Echo and an EMS transport unit from Glen Echo.  During this transport time, the EMS crews provided debriefing to the simulation participants and prepared them for continuing the simulation at the hospital.  While at Suburban Trauma, the EMS crews further supported the simulation by coordinating efforts with the Suburban trauma team.  One of the “patients” who was transported ultimately succumbed to her injuries, and was declared dead by the trauma physician.  The second “patient,” who has received a scholarship to play college football in real life, was told he would be paralyzed from the neck down as a result of a fractured neck he sustained during the crash.

At the conclusion of the exercise, the 5 student actors who participated in the crash as victims went to an overnight retreat to process their experiences, along with 21 other students who were pulled from their classes by police officers during the course of the day and declared “dead.”

Click here to view a video of another "Every 15 Minutes" program (at Walter Johnson High School in  Bethesda), in which the Rescue Squad also participated.   (Clicking on this link will take you to a third-party website). 

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