Photo By Capt. Jill Odell | U.S. Army Sgt. Mani Mullen, a health care specialist with the 4220th U.S. Army...... read more read more
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FORT THOMPSON, S.D. – Army Reserve Medical Command Soldiers from the 4220th U.S. Army Hospital in Shoreham, New York, partnered with the Crow Creek Ambulance Service on the Crow Creek Reservation in South Dakota from May 31 to June 13.
The ambulance service is locally owned and operated by the Crow Creek community. The service also provides additional support to the neighboring reservation of Lower Brule. The Native American communities of Crow Creek and Lower Brule are both Lakota tribes of the Sioux Nation.
“We want the Soldiers to get hands-on treatment and let them see how we do it in the real world,” said Waylon Grassrope, an emergency medical technician with the Crow Creek Ambulance Service.
Working with the ambulance service was a very different environment for the New York Soldiers of the 4220th. The Crow Creek Reservation has a population of over 2,000 people spread across 400 square miles in central South Dakota. It is a community where roads may not have names and homes may not be numbered, so emergency services must adapt to meet the needs of the community.
“We are part of a support system,” Grassrope said. “The biggest role that we serve is being able to respond to calls that happen in the boonies. Especially when you have a local on-duty driver who was born and raised here, who knows every single backroad and knows where everybody lives. In that regard, we are a tremendous asset to this community; being able to be there.”
This collaboration with the local ambulance service offers Army Reserve Soldiers like Spc. Simone Fletcher, a health care specialist with the 4220th, the opportunity to see how emergency medical services operate in a rural community.
“We’re getting a lot of hands-on experience here that we wouldn’t traditionally get in an urban city, being that we are from New York,” said Fletcher. “Response time here is pretty long because of the distance, and it is very rural. Also, the emergency services here work without a formal 911 system.”
Sgt. Donnice Jackson, a health care specialist with 4220th, said working with the natives was a unique experience.
“We’ve learned so much from them. This is an experience that we wouldn’t have on a daily basis as it’s not our civilian careers,” she said. “Not only have they allowed us to be a part of their team and help the locals but they’ve also taught us a lot about the culture and community and the locals have been very welcoming.”
In such rural communities, an ambulance team with a desire and willingness to serve is necessary. According to the Soldiers, the ambulance crew often serves as a shuttle service for the locals in order to make access to medical care more readily available.
“There aren’t a lot resources here, so quite often you may have someone who needs to go to an appointment for therapy or may need to just be transported to the local hospital just for a transport or something of the sort, and the EMTs are there to assist them, and they actually offer that service to them, knowing that there are limited resources for the individuals here,” Jackson said.
The dedication to their community shines bright in the actions of the ambulance team on Crow Creek.
| Date Taken: | 06.12.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 06.27.2015 19:41 |
| Story ID: | 168409 |
| Location: | FORT THOMPSON, SD, US |
| Web Views: | 165 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, Crow Creek welcomes warrior medics, by CPT Jill Odell, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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