Fire and ambulance service receives life saving equipment

Tina Alexander and Fire Chief Dupuis shake hands
Tina Alexander and Fire Chief Dupuis shake hands

The Dominica Fire and Ambulance service has received six emergency medical bags from the Sandpiper Trust of Scotland. The Sand Piper Trust is an initiative geared at making a difference and saving lives.

On Friday morning Executive Director of Lifeline Ministries, Tina Alexander, handed over six emergency bags to Chief Fire Officer Josiah Dupuis.

In her address, Alexander explained that the Sandpiper bag has evolved from the tragic death of a 14 year old Scottish boy. He was the victim of a silent drowning while on holiday in Canada because he was far away from the hospital and the ambulances were not equipped with the necessary equipment. His family and friends set up the Sandpiper Trust in his memory.

Alexander presented a video which provides hands-on training for first officers on how to properly utilize the equipment.

Dupuis pointed out that the bags will serve as an all in one response bag.

“It is a bag which is supposed to allow a first responder to actually take care of just about any major trauma situation that he or she would encounter. It is really predicated on addressing three primary areas; the ABC (airway, restore breathing, restore circulation).”

Dupuis stated that the bags will make a positive difference in the hands of trained first responders. He explained that the handing over of the bags is a timely event.

“In the last two years we have been recording in excess of 7000 ambulance calls per annum and 2012-2013 were the first years that we saw ambulance calls exceeding 7000 so that gives us a sense of the amount of calls that we do but the importance that the fire service must place on its pre-hospital care.”

Medical bags

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14 Comments

  1. REALLY
    May 19, 2014

    why dont you say thanks you and move one.

  2. Anonymous
    May 17, 2014

    What about training no point in having all this equipment and not know how to use it .

  3. May 17, 2014

    Praise the UK Almighty

  4. van
    May 17, 2014

    Nice gesture and something useful

  5. sixty nine
    May 17, 2014

    That’s good news..happy to see such improvement and help towards our fire service…hope it is put to good use..

  6. Anonymous
    May 17, 2014

    Thank you.

    ADominican diaspora, in California.

  7. eyes open wide
    May 17, 2014

    thank u so much for your help

  8. LOOKING IN
    May 17, 2014

    Thanks to Tina and the Sandypiper Trust for these life saving equipment it surely will be helpful in emergency.

  9. Waypapa
    May 17, 2014

    Thanks DNO. The picture is perfect.

  10. Free Thinker
    May 16, 2014

    Thank you, thank you. thank you very much.

  11. eyes
    May 16, 2014

    Thanks Tina. Good blessings.

  12. Waypapa
    May 16, 2014

    Thanks, Sandpiper Trust of Scotland. DNO could we get a better picture?

  13. DA Native in Texas
    May 16, 2014

    That’s a very good gift. I do have one question to anyone who can provide an answer. Are the first responders in DA trained to restore circulation in a dying victim? I am not familiar with the first responders protocol. When I left home a nurse still had to ride the ambulance. Matter of fact I rode in the back of one of these ambulances in 2008 and was a bit SHOCKED at what I encountered on that ride from Canefield to the PMH.

    • in your face
      May 18, 2014

      you are asking if they a traned in frist aid. and if they know how to do Cpr you say in 2008 you rode in the back of an ambulance. did you take a vep?

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