Police more prepared to save citizens’ lives

Friday, April 25, 2003 | 3:49 a.m.

WEEKEND EDITION: April 26, 2003

With a lot of wide-open spaces and other undeveloped land in Henderson, police officers on occasion find themselves at accident scenes and other incidents before paramedics can arrive to help the injured.

Although every one of the 250 Henderson Police officers is trained in basic first aid, the first aid kits they carry are more suited to relieve headaches or cover a scrape.

A local charity years ago gave the department trauma kits to address more serious injuries, but those kits have long been depleted and there are not enough to go around.

The department's administrative officer, Charles Rush, has had to search medical catalogs and scramble to locate hard-to-find items such as 10-by-30-inch bandages and puncture-resistant, powder-free, nitrile gloves at reasonable cost to keep those old trauma kits marginally stocked.

C.D. Smith Co., a Las Vegas medical supply wholesale firm, saw the department's plight and has entered into a deal to provide 120 Henderson patrol units, detective vehicles and other police cars with trauma packs specially designed by the department and the company to best suit emergency needs.

At $21 apiece, the "Trauma Shooting Kit" is cheaper and more efficient than many standard first aid kits and the cost of individually purchasing supplies for the older trauma kits.

"We have about 12 serious off-road ATV (all-terrain vehicle) accidents a year in the desert that we have to get to using four-wheel vehicles," Rush said, noting the city of about 250,000 residents -- the second largest in the state -- covers 96 square miles.

"We can't get an ambulance or a fire department vehicle into some of those areas, so our officers on the scene have to assist some seriously injured people."

The department also patrols roads that are some distance from fire departments, such as on Black Mountain, in the area south of Seven Hills and toward McCarran International Airport, Rush said.

When police are pressed into service as medical responders, they are free from liability in most cases should they attempt to perform beyond their medical skills using the trauma kits, Rush said.

"There are Good Samaritan laws that make us not legally responsible for someone, let's say losing a leg, that we tried to save," said Rush, a 32-year police veteran who has served the last 20 in Henderson. "But we would face more liability problems by doing nothing for an injured person. Our goal is to stabilize victims until paramedics can get there."

C.D. Smith representative Debbie Morehouse, a Henderson resident, said her company helped put together the kits with the public's safety in mind.

"I feel better as a citizen of this city knowing that our police are better prepared to care for people who are seriously injured if paramedics cannot immediately get to the scene," she said.

Morehouse joined the 11-year-old Las Vegas medical company in January but had worked with Henderson Police for two years as a publishing company representative providing materials for police safety programs in schools. When she went to work for C.D. Smith, a Henderson police officer she had worked with in her prior job told her of Rush's plight trying to restock the obsolete trauma kits.

The Trauma Shooting Kit is simple, containing only about a dozen items, including medical scissors, two rolls of gauze and thin antiseptic packets.

In cases of emergency, where police have to perform several other services, such as crowd or traffic control, officers do not have time to fish through piles of various-sized bandages and other items to find what they may need. Rush said he consulted with the city's staff physician to determine the few best items that would be needed in a situation where officers could stop a person from bleeding to death.

However, Morehouse and Rush said the kit could be expanded and may one day include items such as a thin but sturdy gown to better protect officers from contaminated blood and an anthrax mask.

The kits are used just once and then are restocked with sterile supplies, Morehouse said.

Also, in addition to the trauma kit, the company is in negotiations with the department for 40 defibrillation machines, costing $2,000 to $3,500 per unit. Officers already are trained in their use, and some police units already have the devices, which restart a person's heart with an electrical shock.

Morehouse said her goal is to enter into contracts to provide trauma kits based on the Henderson design to other police departments.

"Our company is diverse in that our customers include hospitals, surgery centers and most of the health care industry," she said. "But emergency services has become real important to us. And our focus now is to get the trauma kits in all police vehicles in the state."