First responders, healthcare workers deal with COVID-19 risks
Wednesday, May 13, 2020 • The Hammonton Gazette • Page 3
HEALTHCARE, from Page 1
“We’re used to having to deal
with the public, dealing with the
community, dealing with crime,
dealing with offenders. These are
all usually things that, through our
experience, we’ve been able to
gauge and assess situations very
easily for what’s going on,” Friel
said.
Friel noted that the department
is used to situations changing at a
moment’s notice, but, for the most
part, experience is able to guide
the department through normal
operations. The situation with
COVID-19, however, is unique.
“With the virus, you’re fighting
an unseen foe. Because it’s un-
seen, it causes us to act and react a
lot differently than we normally
would on a day-to-day basis. We
lead each day like every person we
encounter could be a coronavirus-
positive person. We have to take
extra precautions with our interac-
tions with people,” Friel said.
Dr. Thomas Brabson, chairman
of emergency services and med-
ical staff director, COVID-19 In-
cident Command for AtlantiCare,
said that the invisible nature of the
virus has been a major stressor for
both EMS and emergency depart-
ment personnel.
“It’s not obvious who may have
the infection and who doesn’t, so
it’s that constant state of vigilance
that, as humans, makes it a little
challenging for us, because there’s
the constant physical stress and
psychological stress, wondering if
I’m doing everything I need to do
to protect myself first and fore-
most,” Brabson said.
Brabson said that this mode of
thinking runs counterintuitive to
the usual thought process for most
emergency responders, who tradi-
tionally consider the needs of their
patients above their own needs.
“Now our frame of mind has to
be adjusted to the point of, ‘what
do I need to do to protect myself
and have my own personal protec-
tive equipment on before I now go
and approach the person to see
what their medical needs are?’”
Brabson said.
Friel said that these precautions,
in his opinion, make interactions
with the public feel more sterile in
nature.
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“We don’t have a normal inter-
action and niceties that we would
normally have, because all of that
ends up hampered by personal
protective equipments (PPE), the
mask on your face, eyewear or a
shield on your face to protect your
eyes, gloves and even in some sit-
uations donning an outer-protec-
tive garment, like a gown or a
Tyvek suit in extreme cases. That
kind of takes away from the type
of community policing that we
normally do. It makes things a lot
more uneasy for people in this
type of situation, and we do our
best to put people at ease during
this tumultuous time of the health
crisis,” Friel said.
Hammonton Fire Chief Sean
Macri said that his department
faced similar challenges in regards
to public interaction.
“It is tough, because we’ve had
to adjust to not having so many
guys on a truck because we want
to be able to space them out, even
in a vehicle. We’re doing things
just a little differently, including
interacting with the public, which
makes it hard because that’s why
we do this. We like helping out, we
like interacting with the public and
this takes that away from us a little
bit,” Macri said.
Macri noted that firefighters
have been exercising social dis-
tancing when answering calls.
“If we were to come to your
house for a fire alarm, we pull up,
the officer on the truck would
knock on your door and take a step
back and talk to the homeowner. If
it were something simple, if the
homeowner burned something on
the stove, instead of us going in to
check it out with two or three guys
we would stand back and say
okay. If they need help, we’d send
one guy in in full PPE. If not, then
we’re good ... Granted, if they
don’t know why the alarm’s going
off or if there’s smoke in the
house, all bets are off. Every-
body’s coming out of the house
and we’re going to be in full PPE
anyway and it’s business as usual,”
Macri said.
Wearing PPE, Macri said, is not
unusual for firefighters on a call.
“When we have a rescue call,
like a motor vehicle or a rescue, a
lot of guys—I would say almost
90 percent of them—would wear
the nitrile gloves underneath their
rescue gloves, so that’s never re-
ally been a problem. They’re
harder to get right now; the nitrile
gloves I was getting were fen-
tanyl-resistant so, God forbid, any
of the individuals came across a
motor vehicle accident or some-
body who had an opiate issue, you
don’t want to get absorption
through the glove. They’re a little
bit more expensive, but the risk
and the reward warrant it. We can’t
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