By Stacy Lee
Pittsburgh Tribune Review
NORTH VERSAILLES, Penn. — So far this year, 80 police officers in the U.S. have been killed in the line of duty and police officer gunfire deaths are up 26 percent, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page.
North Versailles Township officers Travis Pomaibo and Tom Nee said they thought instruction on how to care for an officer when he or she is down is a necessity for self-preservation.
North Versailles Township Police Department hosted a class Thursday to train local police officers for immediate medical care for themselves and fellow officers if injured in the line of duty.
“There are too many officers getting shot lately,” Pomaibo said. “We wanted to make sure we knew how to deal with it in case it ever did arise.”
“There`s no other class like this out there,” Nee said. “There`s nothing out there for the individual officer. And 99 percent of the time, it`s only us. On an active shooting scene, we hold the ambulances out until we have the scene secured.”
“With the recent events in our area, I believe this is good training for everyone,” North Versailles Township police Chief Vincent DiCenzo Jr. said.
UPMC EMS specialists Shane Spielvogle, PHRN, and Scott Dolan, EMT-P, were the instructors.
“Our main priorities when an officer is injured is finding if he`s breathing,” Dolan said. “Does he have a good airway? Is he able to breathe on his own or do we need to breathe for him?”
He said the next thing would be immediate control of bleeding that may be considered life-threatening.
“If we can keep someone from going into shock, the officer is going to have a better chance of surviving,” Dolan said. “The goal of this program is to treat immediate life-threatening injuries for the officers should they be shot or stabbed.”
He said the easiest way to prevent an officer from going into shock is to correct the problem.
“The real goal of this program is to empower the officers to control that bleeding for five or 10 minutes until that officer can be extricated to a safe location for that next level of care to take place through the local emergency medical services and ultimately to a local hospital that can control that incident,” Dolan said.
He said this is the first time UPMC Prehospital Care Department has done this type of program. Dolan said township police approached the department about it.
Officers saw demonstrations on tourniquet applications, blood-clotting agents for active bleeding, emergency bandaging and dressings, basic life support techniques and extrication. SimMan, an advanced patient simulator for training, was utilized, as well.
Pomaibo and Nee were planning this class shortly before the shooting of Clairton police officer James Kuzak, but the April 4 incident that has the officer currently paralyzed was a reminder of how dangerous an officer`s job can be.
DiCenzo is chairman of the board for Law Enforcement Officers Memorial for Allegheny County.
“Every year we have our service,” he said. “This was the first year in three years we didn`t put a name on the wall.”
Officers from many local municipalities took part.
“It was very educational,” Clairton officer Jeffrey Veltre said. “It puts you in the mindset of being out on patrol. You think what you can use as tools to apply pressure and control bleeding.”
“It was a good class,” Allegheny County Housing Authority Sgt. Ed Mogus said. “It should be mandatory for everyone at the academy.”
Pitcairn officer Scott Farally, who also is a Pitcairn EMS EMT, said the class was geared toward patrol officers.
“It was very useful,” he said.
Pomaibo and Nee first approached Fire Department of North Versailles EMS and United Volunteer Fire & Rescue Co. to see if it was possible to host training on what to do if an officer is down. When they learned it was conceivable, they approached DiCenzo.
Copyright 2011 Tribune Review Publishing Company