07-02-2025
Johnstown hospital's response team adds cold weather treatment plan
JOHNSTOWN, Pa. (WTAJ) — Conemaugh Memorial Medical Center added a hypothermia treatment plan to their Disaster Assistance Response Team.
DART is an additional resource to other EMS agencies to aid in patient care. With recent subzero temperatures and two fatal cases of hypothermia in Cambria and Somerset counties, this new tool can help provide a necessary resource.
'Some of our team members started talking about ways that we could improve our response capabilities for that,' Seth Forry, the prehospital operations manager at Conemaugh Memorial Medical Center said. 'With that, we took some equipment that we already had at the hospital and had easy access to and basically put it in our mobile unit.'
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The units are filled with the Bair Hugger machine, which pumps heat into a blanket to warm the patient, along with hot packs. These items are not necessarily found in the average ambulance.
'If we're going to assist another entity that's requested us, then they kind of give us what exactly we need to bring with us,' flight paramedic Jacob Burkhart said.
Time is of the essence when it comes to hypothermia treatment. Victims can see their internal body temperature decrease the longer they are exposed to cold conditions.
Keeping the victim warm as they head to the hospital is also critical in their treatment.
'We don't want them to get cold again because that can have detrimental effects as well,' Forry added. 'In cases of hypothermia, the body initially starts to shiver to try and generate heat, to preserve its temperature. After a while, that mechanism goes away, and then metabolism starts to slow down, and eventually organ systems will start to shut down, which is bad. That can affect neurological, cardiac, all kinds of things. If we can try and get them before they get severely hypothermic, we can try and limit the damage that way.'
Since their launch in 1982, the new initiative has yielded a result. Within 24 hours after deployment, they treated a Johnstown man who had a body temperature of 92 degrees Fahrenheit, three degrees below the point where hypothermia sets in.
The winter months are known to be the main season for hypothermia, but Forry says otherwise.
'It can happen year round, even in the middle of summer, in an air conditioned environment,' Forry added. 'So really we were focused on the winter weather conditions. But this is something that could be applied year round.'
DART plans to assist EMS services around the Johnstown area.
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