Emergency service personnel across the Upper Cumberland will prepare for new legislation that allows them to treat and transport animals injured in the line of duty.
Clay EMS Director Andrew Hall said the department currently has two canine units in the county with a third search and rescue dog in training for the Emergency Management Agency. Hall said the new law is a positive development that ensures these animals receive the same level of care as its human counterparts.
“I think it’s a good deal,” Hall said. “I mean, these canine units and stuff like that, that we have, I know of two or going on three in Clay County that are considered officers or canine units. The city’s police department has one, the county sheriff’s department has one, and we actually have one for EMA that’s going to be a search and rescue dog that’s being trained right now. So I think it’s a good thing to treat them just like one of us, you know?”
Hall said he first learned about the protocols during a presentation at a symposium in Gatlinburg. Gov. Bill Lee recently signed a new bill into law, leading to the state’s first emergency transport.
“I’ve got a bunch of animal lovers here who would be more than happy to do the training and stuff, go for it, you know, if it was ever offered for our area,” Hall said. “I mean, if they offer the training to us, yeah… any of my guys (who) wanted to go through the training, I’d be more than willing to help support them go through it,.”
Hall said injured canines must be transported to specific veterinary clinics rather than standard hospitals. Hall said facilities like the University of Tennessee and certain clinics in Chattanooga are currently set up to participate in the program.
“It’ll probably be few and far between for us because we just have one or two, you know, and they’re more of a rescue dog or, you know, stuff like that,” Hall said. “I don’t foresee us using it a whole lot, but it’s nice to have just in case one of them do have a problem.”
LIFE FORCE air medical recently completed its first K-9 evacuation, transporting the service animal from western North Carolina to the UT’s Veterinary Medicine College in Knoxville. The K-9 unit received critical trauma treatment, which led to its survival.
Hall said the department is also focused on human medical upgrades, including Neonatal Resuscitation Provider certification for all staff. Hall said the county recently purchased two new field ventilators to assist with long transport times in the rural area.
“We’ve been without a hospital about five or six years now but we’re still learning, trying to improve every day to make it better for our patients even though we have the longer transport times,” Hall said. “So we’re trying to upgrade our equipment our skills to meet that demand of hey, yeah, we got a long transport time so we need to up our game a little bit to make sure we give them the best chance we can give them.”
Hall said the new ventilators will allow paramedics to automate breathing for patients, freeing up their hands to administer medication or perform other life-saving tasks.