{"id":26145,"date":"2024-08-15T20:46:20","date_gmt":"2024-08-15T20:46:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/community-donations-fund-new-ambulance-equipment-in-cortez-area\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T05:33:47","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T05:33:47","slug":"community-donations-fund-new-ambulance-equipment-in-cortez-area","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/community-donations-fund-new-ambulance-equipment-in-cortez-area\/","title":{"rendered":"Community donations fund new ambulance equipment in Cortez area"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The
The new automated stretcher and loading system. (Cameryn Cass\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Residents of Montezuma and Dolores counties raised $53,000 to match a state grant that funds automatic stretchers and CPR devices in Southwest Health System\u2019s ambulances.<\/p>\n

The stretchers lift and load patients, then are secured to the floor of the ambulance with the press of a button.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s safer for everyone, the responders and injured person alike, said Dakota May, an emergency medical technician.<\/p>\n

\"The
The new automated stretcher and loading system. (Cameryn Cass\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The automatic nature of the new stretchers means the EMTs can avoid straining themselves when lifting and lowering people into the vehicle.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of those patients are pretty big, and some of the help is pretty small,\u201d said Walter Henes, a donor at the event.<\/p>\n

Plus, in the event of a crash, the cot is secured: It isn\u2019t going anywhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty much an industry standard now,\u201d said May. \u201cWe\u2019re using them every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new stretchers are interchangeable, meaning they\u2019ll work in all Southwest Health\u2019s ambulances and others in the surrounding area.<\/p>\n

As far as the CPR devices go, it works for most everyone, so long as they\u2019re older than 8 years old and the device can fit around their body.<\/p>\n\n

It\u2019s great because it frees up hands, so responders can start inserting IVs, for example, while the machine is giving CPR, May said.<\/p>\n

Humans can do CPR well for less than five minutes, and, if there\u2019s more than one responder present, they ought to take turns administering it every 2 minutes, said EMS Chief Matt Lindsay.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike the old saying, you can pretty much set it and forget it,\u201d Lindsay said.<\/p>\n

To celebrate the new equipment and donors that made it possible, the EMS Department and Southwest Memorial Hospital Foundation put on an event Wednesday afternoon.<\/p>\n

They invited donors, the hospital staff and first responders to attend.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve needed their services and they\u2019ve been there for us,\u201d said Robby Henes, a donor at the event.<\/p>\n

\"The
The donor-appreciation event hosted at the EMS building on Aug. 14. (Cameryn Cass\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

There\u2019s an excess of $20,000 they raised that will go toward future projects, said Karla Demby, the vice president on the Southwest Memorial Hospital Foundation Board.<\/p>\n

\u201cMoney is a tool \u2013 not a gift. Just like a hammer. It\u2019s no good if you don\u2019t use it,\u201d said Walt Henes. \u201cIf you don\u2019t use the hammer, it will rust.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Southwest Health System ambulances now have automatic stretchers and CPR devices<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26146,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-26145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26145"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26145\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79247,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26145\/revisions\/79247"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26145"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=26145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}