East Aurora Advertiser

Community Support Helps in Purchasing EMT Equipment



Giving back to the community is what local fire companies and their volunteers are all about. However, in Elma, a fire company was the recipient of local businesses giving back. 

Integris Medical on Maple Road and the Bank of Holland recently worked with the Jamison Road Volunteer Fire Company to bring new equipment on board the ambulance, enabling first responders to do more with the time they have with patients.

The machine is called a 12-lead cardiac monitor, and it will allow the Emergency Medical Service (EMS) providers who are working on the ambulance to get information about the patient, such as the results of an EKG, over to the hospital before the patient arrives. The doctor on duty can then make the determination if the patient should go right to cardiac care or if the patient has time to wait in the emergency room before being evaluated by a cardiologist.

“It is an integral piece of equipment,” Michael Komorek, Jr. said.

Michael Komorek, III adjusts the controls on the 12-lead cardiac monitor, which the Jamison Road Fire Company recently acquired for their ambulance. Photo by Shelly Ferullo

He has been volunteering at the fire company for around 15-years, first as fire protection, then as an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT). He is also the treasurer for the Benevolent Association for the fire company.

“A new one of these units for an ambulance can be as high as $40,000. For a small fire company like ours, that’s a big purchase.”

Jamison Road Fire Company is one of four fire companies in Elma that provides fire protection. The area it covers is over three square miles, with 3,000 people residing in it. Komorek said that at Jamison Road, around 85 percent of the calls that come in require EMS services, and this monitor will help them provide the best care that they can.

“The ultimate goal when you have a patient presenting chest pains is to get them to a hospital,” Komorek said. “You want to get this information to the hospital while you are en route. Now we can.”

Volunteers and local businesses came together to help supply a life saving device for the Jamison Road Fire Company. From the left is Jacob Steck and Brigette Wilson with Integris Equipment, Sonia Azzi and Dorothy Bohall with the Jamison Fire Auxiliary, EMT Michael Komorek, Jamison Fire Chief Brian Nolan Jr., Assistant Chief Dan Wilson, Kelly Bloom with Bank of Holland and Ken Wainwright of the local benevolent association. Photo by Marty Wangelin

The cardiac monitor that the fire company received is an older model that Integris Medical found from another area in the country and refurbished. Komorek estimates it is valued at around $10,000. The Jamison Road Ladies Auxiliary assisted in purchasing the unit from Integris Medical with money that they raised during a chicken barbecue. The machine requires automatic defibrillator pads and the Bank of Holland provided the funding to purchase enough pads for a full year.

“We have multiple factions in our town that were all able to band together. Now we really have a state of the art system to provide healthcare to the community,” Komorek said.

Megan Nolan fills out medical paperwork that a hospital will need when the patient arrives. In the near future, Jamison Road Fire Company would like to have a laptop on the ambulance for this purpose. Photo by Shelly Ferullo

In addition to performing EKGs, the new monitor can also take the patient’s vital signs, such as blood pressure and pulse rate. It is transportable, and EMS can carry the machine into a person’s home or it can go onto the stretcher with a patient into the hospital.

“And it frees up hands to do other things,” Komorek said. “Sometimes it would be hard to hear on the ambulance to get the vitals.”

Megan Nolan agrees. She is the department’s most recent EMT for Jamison Road, where she is also a third generation volunteer. She is 18-years-old, and she started volunteering two years ago in the Junior Firefighter program. Prior to the ambulance receiving the 12-lead cardiac monitor, one of her jobs during a call was to take the patient’s vitals. Now she can spend more time making sure the patient is comfortable during the transport to the hospital, because the machine takes care of a lot of the work.

“I love the patient interaction,” she said, adding her time on the ambulance influenced her decision to enroll in the Physicians Assistant program at Daemen College this fall.

Michael Komorek III, who is the son of Komorek, is 22-years-old and is studying Criminal Justice at Hilbert College. He has used the monitor on several calls already and he said it is saving time, as are other new forms of technology. Members of the fire company recently began using an app on their phones, and they can respond immediately if they are going to show up to a call. This information is sent to the fire hall, and the fire chief knows in minutes how many volunteers will be arriving at the scene.

The app also lists the protocols for what to do in each emergency situation, and EMTs can refer to the app during a call if needed.

Komorek said in the future, they would like to be able to place laptops on the ambulance for entering the patient’s medical information during a call so the hospital can receive that quicker, too.

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