The Maryland Institute for Emergency Medical Services Systems (MIEMSS), which oversees and coordinates all components of the statewide EMS system, recently presented its 2013 statewide Star of Life awards.  The awards are presented to individuals or teams for outstanding rescue.  There were over 600 calls nominated for the awards.

One of the awards went to Dorchester County’s Department of Emergency Services Communications & EMS division for a call regarding an apartment fire on Race Street in Cambridge around 11 p.m. on December 16, 2012. Callers indicated that several people were trapped on upper floors of the building.

From maryland.newszap.com’s article on Dorchester County,

From the time of the first phone call to 911 until the last piece of apparatus cleared the incident, the “systems approach,” emblematic of Maryland’s emergency medical services system, was prevalent. There is no doubt that the heroic rescues made by the Cambridge Police Department and by the crews of Dorchester County Department of Emergency Services reduced injuries and prevented fatalities.

The other Maryland Star of Life award went to St. Mary’s County Region V consisting of members of the Mechanicsville Volunteer Rescue Squad, Mechanicsville Volunteer Fire Department, Hughesville Volunteer Fire Department, St. Mary’s County Advanced Life Support, Charles County EMS, and Trooper 7.  St. Mary’s call was during the deadly derecho storm on June 29, 2012, when a truck had overturned the guardrail.  The rescue team could barely see the vehicle down the steep embankment approx. 50 feet to the crushed vehicle.

From the St. Mary’s County Advanced Life Support Unit website,

Firefighters on the scene went about extricating the patient from the car, which took only six minutes. Once free from the crushed vehicle, the patient was long-boarded and pulled to street level using a stokes basket. The providers pulled themselves back up the 50-foot ravine to street level to continue patient care.

The unrestrained driver was suffering a head injury, flail chest, and bilateral arm fractures. Units worked on the scene for 52 minutes and shortly after being lifted from the embankment, the patient was flown by Maryland State Police Trooper 7, and accompanied by a medic from Charles 2, to the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center with life-threatening injuries.

Click here for more information on Dorchester and St. Mary’s counties’ awards.