Try My Job: Emergency Management
by KFYR TV Alan Miller
Posted on 11/25/2009
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Most jobs are fairly predictable. You know what you’re going to do when you get there each day. Then there are those positions where you have to be prepared for almost anything.
And in some cases, the only possibilities are potentially dangerous.
As the director of safety, security and emergency management at St. Alexius hospital, Derek Hanson wears a lot of hats. And the hat he’ll eventually put on me belongs to a member of a hazmat crew, responding to a chemical spill of some sort.
“Biologicals are treated much differently than chemicals,” says Hanson. “Chemicals, we have to respond right now. You know, people could drop right over, could be very harmful for them, and it takes an immediate response. With biologicals, you’re going to have days or perhaps weeks before signs and symptoms would settle in.”
But when he says immediate response, that might be a bit misleading. No one is going to rush to the scene unprotected. So you have to be fully suited, with every possible point of exposure sealed off. It’s not possible to get dressed by yourself, and it can take 15 to 20 minutes to get someone ready. And you have to wear a larger outfit than you’re used to because no one wants to take a chance that the suit will split open at the scene.
“It could be pretty disastrous to send people into that situation but do not have proper protection,” says Hansen. “So unfortunately, there could be a little bit of a waiting period, and folks will have to be aware of that.
He makes sure people are trained to respond, even if such events are rare. “There are just thousands of loads of chemicals on trucks and trains and things moving every day in this state, so in one respect, it’s probably amazing that we don’t have more occur than what does,” Hansen says.
He takes me to another part of the hospital, which turns into a decontamination unit if victims are brought in. We would help them shower and scrub up. “You’re completely waterproof from the chemical,” says Hansen. “So we can put this on you and it’s not going to harm you. And then when you’re all done, we have to clean you off and undress you so that you’re deconned before we can move you.”
For that, we head to the ambulance bay, which is turned into a huge shower room. At full capacity, it can handle one hundred people per hour. For convenience sake, we’ve skipped some safety steps. But there’s one problem: the shower water is cold. I’d prefer a hot shower, so we wait. That’s when I start moving through. Unfortunately, Hansen thought the water was too hot and turned the heat down. This isn’t nearly as enjoyable as I thought it was going to be.
Fortunately, it’s not extremely cold outside yet, so I didn’t turn into an icicle when I went outside.