Emergency responders make it real
Karen Peterson
Emergency responders Israel Umphrey, Nick Durglo, Bill von Holtum and Robbie Erickson watch as a helicopter takes off from the scene of the accident.
Karen Peterson
St. Ignatius Police Officer Patrick Nobles gives Kaleb Durglo a field sobriety test during the mock accident.
Karen Peterson
leila Marsh lies dead on the hood of a car during a mock accident.
Karen Peterson
Karen Peterson
Karen Peterson
St. Ignatius Volunteer Fire Fighter Tana Couture tells students to make good choices because she couldn’t imagine life without them.
Karen Peterson
Karen Peterson
Karen Peterson
Karen Peterson
Karen Peterson
Karen Peterson
Karen Peterson
Karen Peterson
Karen Peterson
Karen Peterson
Karen Peterson
Karen Peterson
Karen Peterson
Karen Peterson
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ST. IGNATIUS – Kaleb Durglo, 16, got out of a smashed car after driving drunk and looked at his dead friends.
“No, no, no,” he screamed when he saw them.
Mission High School students watched the mock crash scene with teary eyes on Friday. Senior Haley Carroll, 17, organized the scene to help prevent drinking and driving.
St. Ignatius Police Officer Patrick Nobles pulled up with lights flashing and arrested Durglo. Emergency response teams came on the scene and went to work on the victims. MedStar flew in to take one of the patients to the hospital.
Emergency responders often participate in mock crash scenes at schools in an effort to show kids that their decisions have consequences. Montana Highway Patrol Trooper Shad Andersen introduced more than 20 emergency personnel that participated in the mock crash. They participate in the hopes of never seeing young people at a real crash scene.
“A wreck involving kids hits home for us; we don’t get over it,” said Mission Valley Ambulance emergency responder Annie Morigeau.
St. Ignatius Volunteer Fire Fighter Tana Couture also works at the school as a paraprofessional. In her firefighting gear, she asked students to make good choices.
“For me, this is a little bit different,” she said. “I know you kids. I get to spend time with you at school, but I’m also on call 24/7. It will crush me if it’s any of you kids in an accident.”
MedStar Flight Nurse Casey Thompson flew in from Missoula with the helicopter flight crew to help with the scene.
“I know we look stoic on the scene,” she said to the students. “But when we go home, we hug our families.”
Thompson later said the flight crew participates in at least two mock crash events a year. She explained that “stoic” look medical responders have to put on while responding to any type of scene.
“We come on the scene ready to work,” she said. “We are good at compartmentalizing and focusing on what we need to do. On a scene, people are screaming and crying just like what the kids saw today, and we can’t break down. We can talk and cry later, but not on the scene.”
The Mission ambulance team recently received four new volunteers that are learning to put on that stoic face for real crash scenes, and they are also Mission High School students. They helped respond to the mock crash.
“We know that we are there to do a job,” Nick Durglo said of learning to face an accident with a professional response. “And we are there to help people.”
Bill von Holtum, Robbie Erickson, Israel Umphrey and Durglo turned 18 this year just in time to take a class with the Mission ambulance crew to eventually become certified emergency responders, although they can’t take the state test until they graduate. The students can volunteer to help certified emergency responders, but they don’t get to drive the ambulance due to insurance issues.
Umphrey is the third generation in his family to become an emergency responder. He now works alongside his mother, aunt, uncle, grandmother and others when responding to emergency calls. He says volunteering is a tradition in his family.
Erickson decided to volunteer as a way to help the community and get a head start on becoming an emergency room doctor.
Von Holtum thought he would volunteer with the fire crew, but when he saw his friends joining the ambulance crew he signed on.
“It’s really cool that we can do this as a group,” he said adding that they grew up together.
Their conversations have even taken a new turn in the past few months since they started taking the EMT training with lessons including anatomy, respiratory ventilation, burn response and drug overdose procedures.
“We’ve switched to medical talk,” Erickson said. “We even watch surgery together (on YouTube).”
Each one of the group members packs a radio with him during the day, including at school.
“The radio goes off, beep, beep, beep,” Umphrey said adding that teachers have been very supportive of the group’s volunteer service when they get a call during class time. “I got eight calls in school one day.”
Erickson said he was in church the first time he received an emergency call.
“It’s an adrenaline rush,” he said.
During the mock crash, they practiced their skills in front of their peers for the same reasons as any volunteer, which was to prevent accidents, but these young volunteers said they also really wouldn’t want to have to respond to a real scene where a kid was killed in a drinking and driving accident, so they wanted everyone to make good choices.
