Arlington EMS

When they say that everything is bigger in Texas I almost have to believe it.  I arrived in Arlington just in time for the Texas Rangers and the St. Louis Cardinals were battling it out for game 5 in the world series.  Arlington has both the Texas Ranger Stadium and the Dallas Cowboy Stadium right next to each other.  What I found significant about this is that compared to where I come from in Oakland we had the Oakland Raiders contract the amount of resources they utilized for the Cowboy games was simply on a completely different level.  At any game they would have approximately 40 personnel for 5 first aid stations throughout the stadium which was also staffed with 4 dedicated ambulances (If I got my numbers wrong here I will make sure I correct them).  The amazing part of this is the collaboration between Arlington Fire and the AMR operation.  I interviewed Paul Turner, Director of Event Operations at the Stadium along with Shane Smith, GM of Operations at AMR about the partnership and what it takes to meet the demands of EMS for all the events at the stadium.

 Another remarkable story I had the pleasure of learning about was of this boy Elijah, son of Chad and Leslie Wandel, who was at a school presentation of first aid that was organized by his mother Leslie who is a scheduler at AMR in Arlington.  While the even had been taught in April it was June when Elijah was at home with his father and 3 y/o sister when she began choking on a handful of goldfish.  Elijah immediately got behind her and performed the heimlich maneuver and she coughed up the gold fish.  Me typing this does not do this story justice, but the City of Arlington has dedicated August 17 “Elijah Wandel Day”.