Crime & Safety

Fire District Buys Camera to Help Trauma Victim Treatment

Mehlville Fire also promoted Craig Walk to assistant chief of Emergency Medical Services.

Mehlville Fire Protection District firefighters can now insert an endotracheal tube in a severe trauma or cardiac arrest victim in nearly any situation with the aide of a new camera.

The fire board saw a presentation at Wednesday’s meeting about a new device that improves their current Airtraq Airway—a plastic device that illuminates the inside of a victim’s mouth and allows paramedics to place a tube in the trachea windpipe for air.

“Now they’ve come out with a camera system which actually attaches to this plastic piece, which is disposable, to allow the paramedics to actually place this Airway in the patient and not have to be right over their head where they would normally be,” said Craig Walk, the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) assistant chief. 

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The camera, which comes with a small viewing screen, helps the firefighter guide the tube past the vocal chords.

“The reason this is important is because sometimes you have patients who…retch, vomit during that process and it causes an infection control issue with our employees,” Walk said. “So this is a camera device which allows the paramedics to do it at more of a distance.”

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The assistant chief also said the camera is useful when the victim is at an odd angle such as in a car accident. Normally, the paramedic must be at the top of the patient’s head rather than to the side.

“It takes the guesswork out,” said Field Training Officer Todd Besancenz during the presentation. “I insert it and look at the screen and know right where it’s going. I see exactly where I need to be.”

The device can also hold a SIM card and record movie files that can be viewed on a computer.

Walk estimates the fire district receives 36-48 calls per month where the device will be used.  

The district is purchasing seven of the cameras at the cost of $1,200 each. Chief Brian Hendricks said the expense is already built into the district’s budget.

“Time is everything and this is just another tool that we have when you’re in that living room and you’re trying to secure their airway, I think anybody that has worked in the field knows that sometimes is the hardest thing to do, is to get that airway,” Hendricks said.

The board also promoted Walk to the assistant chief of EMS. Previously, he held the deputy chief position.

Board chairman Aaron Hilmer said the assistant chief position has been unfilled for six years. Since Walk has been running the EMS department, the board decided to promote him and leave the deputy chief position unfilled, Hilmer said.

Walk started working for the Mehlville Fire Protection District in 1978 as a paramedic and then was promoted to supervisor in 1985. He left the district in 1996 to work as a helicopter paramedic and served with fire districts in Farmington and Big River. Ten years later, he returned to Mehlville and became the EMS deputy chief.

Walk said he was very honored to hold the position. 


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