Happy Memorial Day weekend all! The past week was a good warm up for YNP busy season. I worked 4 days at the clinic finishing my orientation. We saw a good bump in patient volume for routine as well as urgent care walk in patients. Vehicle traffic in and around the park is getting more constant and people are starting to be everywhere. Temps are slowly starting to climb during the day to the mid-60’s but still around 30F at night. We even had a winter storm warning this past Thursday…with a few inches here in the Yellowstone River Valley, while at higher elevations a fresh layer of snow fell, causing roads and mountain passes to close.
In addition to working shifts at the clinic, my background check cleared and I started my field orientation to YNP EMS. Joe my preceptor is a long time YNP Ranger and well experienced paramedic. He has been at YNP for over 35 years. We started off with a tour of the area after a clinic shift where he showed me the Mammoth Hot Springs historic areas and layout of buildings. Of course, as we were taking our tour…we got an EMS call with the Gardiner Gateway Hose & EMS Co. So…off we went. We provided paramedic level ALS services to the patient and transported to the Livingston, MT hospital. There is nothing quick about ambulance transports in this environment, it takes about three hours per call when all goes without delay. The next day at the end of my clinic shift, we continued the tour…which consisted of me getting in Joe’s truck and driving immediately to the fire station because there was a Search-and-Rescue (SAR) incident just starting. Location of the incident was at Bunsen Peak, not far from Mammoth. A report of hikers in distress on a trail, needing assistance. A series of teams were activated, each with a specific purpose. A Hasty Team immediately made access to the trail to locate the hikers, get a size up on severity, and most importantly report the GPS coordinates back to the Incident Command. A Support Team with specialty wilderness extraction equipment and personnel were dispatched. Joe and I were on the ambulance staged at the trail-head ready to care for anyone who needed it. In the photos you will see some of the gear available, such as the wheeled litter, used to move people out of the wilderness. We have a couple of medical students doing a rotation in the park, learning about wilderness medicine. Fortunately for the hikers, they were able to walk down the trail with assistance and were treated and released at the trail-head.
Mid-week we had a few bison feeding on the Mammoth Clinic front lawn…fortunately the Super 8 Hotel shares good advice for all visitors (see the photo below) not that they follow it.
Friday, I attended airway training with the YNP EMS medical director team from West Michigan University School of Medicine. It was a great morning of hands-on training followed by an afternoon of rapid-fire scenarios to practice what we learned in the morning. Another top-notch training and getting to meet and know fellow colleagues I’ll be working with from across the park. We finished the day about 5pm…and I headed home. Just as I pulled up in front of my apartment, we get paged out for SAR #2 of the week – an injured hiker at the YNP area known as The Hoodoos. I turn around, and head back into the park…to the staging area. We had a very quick response time to the patient because training ended and several of the EMS staff were driving by the area when the call came in. Hoodoo terrain is tricky to navigate as a hiker and even more so for bringing someone out who cannot walk. A stokes basket was deployed and a Pass-Through Rescue Relay was used to extract the patient from the wilderness. At the scene, I was assigned traffic control…in this environment, you do what’s needed and everyone pitches in. After about an hour the patient was at the trail-head. Joe and I took over patient care and off we went to Livingston Hospital. As we were returning about 4 hours later, driving through the Yellowstone north entrance gate…we got another EMS call, this time a medical emergency at one of the seasonal worker dorms. It was now about 10pm…I take the patient and another PARKmedic with me, (Joe goes home to bed) and off to Livingston Hospital we go, again. Finally, I get back around 1am and head home to bed. Yellowstone Park is an amazing place and has a great team that works well together. I’m learning so much and grateful to be a part of this team!
Saturday, in the town of Gardiner is a special fundraising event called Hell’s A-Roarin’ Horse Drive. Basically, it’s a group of cowboys and cowgirls driving a bunch of horses through the main street to their summer ranch. It’s a festive event where all the town folk and visitors turn out to see the sights. My apartment porch is a perfect spot to watch the action, and I had a few friends from the clinic and EMS stop by to enjoy the view.
Next week we’ll be in the busy season. More adventures ahead, thanks for following along…and Happy Memorial Day!
