Ready to respond

Junior Paramedic Program teaches elementary students how to deal with medical emergencies.

By Robert Chacon
News-Press

February 25, 2004

LA CAÑADA FLINTRIDGE — La Cañada Flintridge has 750 more residents trained to respond in a medical emergency.

The residents, all students at La Cañada Elementary School, graduated from the American Medical Response Junior Paramedic Program, a weeklong class that culminated in a rally and swearing-in ceremony Tuesday at the school.

Paramedics from American Medical Response — one of the country's largest medical transportation companies — taught students the basics of responding to a medical crisis, including recognizing breathing and bleeding emergencies and what to do when calling 911 for help.

By Tuesday, students knew the first three steps in emergency response: stay calm, find an adult and call 911.

The rally was on the school's play field and included law-enforcement officials, firefighters and Montrose Search and Rescue team members. Mayor Stephen Del Guercio, councilmen Anthony Portantino and David Spence, and City Manager Mark Alexander also attended.

During a simulated emergency at the rally, paramedic Kuo Reese feigned unconsciousness while Joseph Matthews, manager of the Junior Paramedic Program, picked a student to respond, handing her a cellphone.

Third-grader Lynn Gilmour dialed 911, reached the Crescenta Valley Sheriff's Station dispatch center, and told the operator about the emergency. The call was transmitted over a public-address system.

Within a minute, emergency vehicles drove onto the campus. Paramedics stabilized Reese and carried her off in an ambulance.

The simulation was meant to show students what they should do during an actual emergency.

After the students heard tips from the California Highway Patrol, county fire department and Montrose Search and Rescue, Del Guercio swore in the new junior paramedics.

The program has been running since 2001, and more than 32,000 students have been sworn in as junior paramedics, Matthews said. The goal is to reach students in 90 communities in Southern California.

Though it is difficult to know which 911 calls have been made by graduates of the program, junior paramedics are making communities safer, Matthews said. In one incident during the summer, paramedics in Long Beach credited a boy with saving his mother's life when she had trouble breathing. The boy told emergency workers he was a junior paramedic.

"The more schools we reach, the more we increase the likelihood that one of the kids we have trained will be a first responder," Matthews said.