PULSE Magazine | April 2020 Issue

Austin EMS Ambulance (The Texan/Brad Johnson)

Austin EMS Battles Coronavirus on the Frontlines as the City Reels The Texan spoke with two EMS professionals about how their job conditions and demands have changed as a result of the coronavirus.

Last week, The Texan spoke with Austin police about how their job has changed since coronavirus became the presiding topic of society today. But they are not the only ones whose jobs have become more dangerous. Texas’ healthcare workers have seen their work- places transform into de facto war zones as the global pandemic has continued to spread. Austin EMS Clinical Specialist Phil Barquer Emergency Medical Services (EMS) workers are oftentimes the first in line. Austin EMS has 37 24-hour ambulances, nine 12 hour daytime trucks, and two day-time paramedic response units that focus outside city limits. Four of those 37 are considered “special operations” units three of which are considered “rescue” trucks. Those rescue units have been on the front- line of this pandemic for some time now. The Texan spoke with Phil Barquer, a clinical specialist with Austin’s Rescue Team and is also a part of the Central Texas Infectious Disease Response Unit. All specialists first must start out in the field as a regular EMS responder. But after some time and specialized training, individuals can join these specialty units. The department receives about 112,000 calls a year for anything ranging from cardiac arrest to a homeless person overdosing on K2. Barquer’s unit gets dispatched to a lot of unknown situations, but ever since getting state-assigned to the Diamond Princess cases in San Antonio they’ve been on the front line of this pandemic in Texas. “Now that we have the community-acquired spread of the disease, we’re more at-risk from getting it anywhere, not just at work,” said Barquer. Contracting the disease not only would limit their ability to treat people who need it, if symptoms don’t develop quickly, it could be spread to their patients or colleagues unknowingly. Selena Xie, president of the Austin Emergency Medical Services Association (EMSA), spoke with The Texan about how things have changed over the past month. “Everything has changed. We have basically recreated an entire EMS agency from scratch.”

Xie doesn’t go out on calls, but in her role as association president, she fields calls constantly and does what she can to support her members to complete their responsibilities in the safest and most efficient way possible. Austin EMSA had its first medic test positive for coronavirus last week. Even despite all the precau- tions taken such as the masks, eye shields, full- body suits, gloves, and more this was almost bound to happen because of their outsized expo- sure. “As the virus has spread into the community, all of our units are taking care of coronavirus patients rather than just the specialty units,” she continued. Circumstances have escalated, Xie stated, from first taking care of the Diamond Princess patients at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, to focusing on the few cases within the community, to now shifting care to the entire community. “Our policies and procedures change almost every day dictating anything from what level of personal protective equipment we’re wearing to protocols for caring for patients,” she added. The depart- ment provides all the personal protective equip- ment (PPEs) the medics need. Another complicating factor is the rapidly changing body of research on the virus there is still confusion about whether it is an airborne disease According to Xie, this depends wholly upon the size of the droplets, and she stated that while it may be somewhat in between, it can be consid- ered droplet based. Still, the EMS workers are approaching precautions as if both are the case to be on the safe side. “Factors like these and more are constantly in flux.” Barquer described the high level of caution re- quired after a shift, saying, “We must ensure the gowns are contained when removed to prevent any splash or splatter from the gown onto other surfaces that can be transmitted. It’s not as sim- ple as pulling the gown and gloves off and throw- ing them in a trash bag.” And when sanitizing their ambulances after a shift, or solely a droplet-transmitted one. Austin EMSA President Selena Xie

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