Dispatcher Uses Rare EMD Procedure to Help Victim

A Schenectady (NY) dispatcher was honored at city hall yesterday for her help in saving a person who was having breathing problems, and who had a tracheostomy tube in her throat. Dispatcher Earlene Hyman-Payne quickly realized the situation and navigated to her on-line EMD instructions, and began telling the victim’s husband what to do. The tube was blocked, and the husband worked quickly to clear it, following Hyman-Payne’s instructions. But the victim wasn’t breathing on her own when EMS units arrived. Fortunately, the husband had also followed Hyman-Payne’s rescue breathing instructions, and the victim survived. During last night’s city hall ceremony, Hyman-Payne was presented with a resolution praising her actions. Read more here (reg. required).