A course in first response

As the victim lay on the floor of the Brown Gym classroom, a squad of emergency workers huddled over him. Wielding splints, bandages, and an oxygen tank, the four went to work.

“Does everyone have their gloves on?” asked instructor Mark Stapf, who teaches a course for first responders to emergency situations. He nodded approvingly as he watched his students, occasionally issuing a gentle reminder.

Within five minutes, Alex Cervantes, a Caltech security guard, playing the victim of an accident who has sustained various wounds, resembled a mummy. Thus trussed, he was ready to be wheeled into an ambulance.

“A first responder is basically an EMT [emergency medical technician] without the transportation and ambulance issues; but they get training in pretty much everything else,” Stapf says. “They do definitive care until other professional help arrives.”

Eleven members of the Caltech community are taking part in this first-responder course, meeting twice a week for three hours per session. The course spans 10 weeks and includes 60 hours of instruction, many of those spent acting out various rescue scenarios.

Stapf—the coordinator of the Health Advocates, a Caltech course (PA 50)
designed to teach the basics of health care—teaches undergraduates many of these same rescue skills.

The first responders receive training in rescue cardiopulmonary resuscitation, taking vital signs (such as blood pressure), treating shock, assisting with diabetic emergencies and seizures, and mitigating many other life-threatening conditions. They are also taught how to summarize a victim’s status and convey it to paramedics.

The first-responder course, which is in a pilot phase, is a collaboration between the Health Center and Staff Education and Career Development, which is a part of Human Resources. In the event of a local catastrophe that overwhelms city rescue operations, trained technicians have to respond to the injured, says Gregg Henderson, chief of Caltech Security and Parking Services.

“All security personnel have first-aid and CPR training, but we’re looking to take it to the next level,” Henderson adds. “We wanted the training to enable security staff, who are usually the first persons on site, to provide professional care in the event of an emergency.” He points out that it is logical for security officers, who patrol the campus day and night, to be able to assume this role.

Those taking the course represent a cross section of campus staff and students. Two of them, John Bender and Jessica Edwards, are resident associates; one is a geology staff member; and eight are security staff, including Loren Kajitani, manager of field security services.

“We learn to size up the victim, how to examine them, how to talk to them, and how to fit them with protective devices,” Kajitani says. “We’re also learning to take blood pressure, and there’s lots of bandaging and splints.”
At the end of the first-responder course, the final exam will include hands-on treatment of both routine and not immediately detectable injuries.

Henderson and Stapf do not know if this course will be offered again. But if it is, Henderson would like to see all of the security officers and others who are regularly on campus, such as members of Facilities Maintenance, take the course.

“Those who take the course need to understand that it is a commitment of 60 hours of training,” Henderson says. “Once they are trained, they may be called on to assist in a major emergency.”

Caltech community members who are interested in the first-responder course can send an e-mail to Henderson at gregg.henderson@caltech.edu.
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