BECKLEY, WV (WOAY)- With upwards of 100,000 people converging on the New River Gorge for Bridge Day, anything can happen.
That means Jan-Care Ambulance and our local hospitals coordinate months in advance to ensure they have top-notch medical support in place.
Jan-Care’s 18 additional ambulances on Bridge Day are there for on-site minor and life-threatening emergencies.
“Then, of course, the rescue operations at the bottom, where over 300 jumpers will be making perhaps up to a thousand jumps,” said Jan-Care Director of Operations Paul Seaman. “We coordinate with the hospital tent physicians, orthopedics at the bottom, and we transport out.”
Raleigh General Hospital prides itself on being a level-three trauma center.
“Which is one of the highest levels in the entire region. And so on Bridge Day, we have our trauma team that gets prepped, and we partner with Jan-Care, who is a big partner at Bridge Day,” Chief Operating Officer Justin Lemoine said. “And so a lot of prep goes into that, and we want to continue to support the community and make sure that if there are any needs from a trauma perspective.”
Sixty-one Jan-Care staff, paramedics, and EMTs are on-site working with the 911 center directly. They set up their own vehicle dispatch for Bridge Day and work closely with the county rescue teams.
“To help us get those people out of the trees and down and back to the tents so we can transport them and then, of course, Dragon and all of those fast water boats that get the people that happen to land in the water,” said Seaman.
RGH typically has orthopedic surgeons and others on standby at the bottom landing spot.
“So if there is a higher level of need, we can partner with Jan-Care to make sure that they’re fully taken care of at the scene as well as coming to the hospital to help them,” Lemoine said.Â
Jan-care says they have had as many as 18 injured at the bottom, including fractures and spinal injuries.
“The chutes have gotten a lot safer, fortunately for the jumpers, over the timeframe,” said Seaman. “We hope the injuries are small on top. It’s the same kind of thing. There can be cardiac issues. There can be diabetic issues. We even have some bee stings.”
Folks may get nervous and try to hit the bottom landing spot and end up in the water, which is a bigger target. But a water landing is sometimes hard like concrete.
“Typically, we’ll see a lot of concussions and maybe some trauma to the sternal area. But for the most part, it’s just cuts and scrapes,” Lemoine said. “But you never know what you’ll see. And we’re definitely ready for anything that shows up.”
Bridge Day is a lot of coordination and moving pieces.
“We treat it like it’s our own little city, our town during that (time),” said Seaman. “It’s just got a beautiful setting and we’re there to help provide people with the care they have so they can have a safe, enjoyable day.”
