Annual EMSC Grantee Meeting

EMSC Heroes Awards Presentation

June 20 – 22, 2006

DAN KAVANAUGH: Well, I would like to hope everybody had a great afternoon, great morning. I’d like to welcome you all to 2006 National Heroes Awards ceremony. We’ve got a lot of great awards to give. You will see a photographer taking some photos, some candid shots now. We’d like to ask those who are the awardees that we will do some group photos at the conclusion of the presentation.

So this afternoon, we are going to recognize and honor members of our community for their accomplishments in EMSC outreach, education, research, and service. And today’s winners, together with all our previous award recipients, share a unique quality: the desire to learn, to educate, and to influence change. And our Heroes Awards is one way that we as a community celebrate their accomplishments. We know that children represent a special challenge at times. The people who are being recognized today are being acknowledged for excellence in meeting that challenge.

Since 1998, the EMSC program has taken the opportunity to recognize and reward outstanding achievement in emergency medical services for children. The National Heroes Award categories provide an opportunity to honor individuals, state teams, and organizations dedicated to advancing the emergency care system for children. This recognition starts with your colleagues because we asked them to identify your good work and submit your names and your efforts to a national independent review panel of your peers.

This year, the panel reviewed the nominations in six award categories and they then selected the winners in each category. These categories, which awards will be given this afternoon, include the State EMSC Policy Maker of Distinction Award, the EMSC Provider Leadership Award, Outstanding EMSC Research Project Award, EMSC Family Member Volunteer of the Year, EMSC Community Partnership Award, and the EMSC Project Coordinator of Distinction Award.

We begin this afternoon’s award ceremony with the EMSC Policy Maker of Distinction Award and I’ve asked Jane Ball and Mike Dean to help present the awards along with Tina Turgel, although Tina is still voiceless. She will be assisting in presenting the awards also this afternoon. Jane.

JANE BALL: The State EMSC Policy Maker of Distinction Award honors an individual who’s been a state public official within the past five years, has advanced state legislation promoting EMSC programs or related measures, and has a statewide, regional or national reputation for safeguarding the health and well being of children. And this year’s winner is Gary Brown, director of Virginia’s Office of EMS.

For more than 25 years, Gary Brown has served the Commonwealth of Virginia as a State Health Department employee and in 1997, he was named the director of the Virginia Office of EMS. In that role Gary’s support, guidance, and political savvy have insured a place for EMSC in every level within the state. For example, Gary added an EMSC representative to the EMS funding taskforce to the Virginia Emergency Management Committee and to the Annual EMS Symposium Planning Committee. He was instrumental in securing representation from the Virginia chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics on the State EMS Advisory Board. In addition, he worked tirelessly to establish the EMSC committee, as the standing committee of the State EMS Advisory Board.

During the 2005 Virginia General Assembly session, Gary spearheaded an initiative to get EMSC added as an objective in the State Emergency Medical Services Plan. This opened the door for EMSC to receive state funds for the first time in 2005. He not only supports EMSC at the state level but he also devotes significant time to supporting the needs of the Federal EMSC Program. His goal is to ensure that all states have EMSC, as well integrated and institutionalized as occurs in Virginia. He attends National EMSC Grantee meetings, regional meetings, NEDARC sponsored training and has served as EMSC grant reviewer on more than one occasion.

Enthusiasm, professionalism, and unparalleled personal integrity are just a few of the characteristics you can constantly expect from Gary Brown. However, he is a leader who never seeks the personal spotlight but has quietly persevered to increase public attention and awareness for EMSC programs and to insure that state-of-the-art emergency medical care is available to children and adolescence throughout the state and the nation. And with our sincere appreciation, the Federal EMSC Program is pleased to recognize him with our State EMSC Policy Maker of Distinction Award.

GARY BROWN: As a state EMS director, I get surprises everyday in my life but I have to admit, this is absolutely the biggest surprise I’ve had in my 27-year career with the Virginia Office of EMS. And I accept this very proudly and I know there are so many people that I think are probably more deserving than I on this but I’m really speechless. I had absolutely no idea. Patrice, you got me back. So, thank you very much and this is such an honor and just thank you. Thank you very much.

DAN KAVANAUGH: Our next awardee is the Provider Leadership Award. And this award recognizes the clinically based help professional who has dedicated his or her time and energy to achieve the highest level of care for children in their community. This individual has helped assure the best possible care for ill and injured children and provides leadership in addressing priority EMSC issues. And this year EMSC Provider Leadership Award goes to Dr. Stephen Karl.

And while Dr. Karl is walking up here, I’m going to say some nice things about him. Dr. Stephen Karl’s passion for providing the highest level of care is evident in the personal commitment and sacrifice he makes for his patients. From 1992 to 2004, he was South Dakota’s only pediatric surgeon. And despite the hectic schedule of being on-call at all times, he always was willing to donate the time needed to provide pediatric education for pre-hospital providers, nurses, and physicians. He’s traveled the state, the region, and beyond to offer his pediatric expertise to others. And then Dr. Karl has devoted countless hours in the American Academy of Pediatrics, serving as a representative to the Committee on Accreditation of Educational Programs for EMS professions, as a representative to its Advanced Pediatric Life Support Steering Committee, and as chair for the South Dakota’s American Academy of Pediatrics Chapter Committee on Pediatric Emergency Medicine.

In addition, he is a member of the State Trauma EMS Stakeholders Group, and currently serves as a medical director for the Avera McKennan School of EMS, South Dakota’s only accredited paramedic education program. And on the EMSC front, Dr. Karl has served as a principal investigator for the New Hampshire and South Dakota EMSC programs. He was instrumental in the development of the Hartland EMS for Children Council and currently he is working with American Samoa as a mentor to their EMSC program and has provided technical assistance to HRSA and the Federal EMSC program on many, many issues and it gives me great pleasure to honor Dr. Karl with this award.

STEPHEN KARL: One of the secrets to life is to hire good people and let them do your work for you. Every once in a while, they sandbag you. Coming from New York, David Bore, I believe in “Don’t get mad, get even.” Thank you very much.

MICHAEL DEAN: Next, we have the Outstanding Emergency Medical Services for Children Research Project Award. This award highlights an individual or a project team who has completed a significant EMSC-related research study that confirms current practice or has a potential to impact the provision of pediatric emergency care at a national or international level. The project’s research findings must have been published within the last 15 months. I think as we’ve gone through the last couple of budget cycles, we’ve been acutely aware of the need for studies that actually demonstrate something clinical and this is one of those rare studies. This year’s winning research project is Dr. Mick Tilford’s “Hospitalizations for Critically Ill Children with Traumatic Brain Injuries: A Longitudinal Analysis.”

His real name is John, but I don’t think he knows that. Published in 2005 in Critical Care Medicine, this study is a rare demonstration of the effect of aggressive critical care, an important component of the EMSC continuum of care on the mortality from one of the leading causes of death: traumatic brain injury. Using sophisticated data analysis, the investigators demonstrated that aggressive treatment of critically ill children with traumatic brain injuries appears to contribute to reduced hospital mortality rates by comparing data between 1988 and 1999, and has saved thousands of lives. The study further demonstrates the disparity of care between children who have insurance and uninsured children. Uninsured children have three times the mortality of privately insured children. The study also found that the incidents of critically ill children and adolescents with traumatic brain injury is not only rising in this country, but is doing so at an alarming rate. Traumatic brain injury hospitalizations increased 20 percent per year during an 11-year period.

This is not the first time that Dr. Tilford, or Mick, as he is known by many of us, has contributed to EMSC with scholarly work. In 2001, he was published for a study demonstrating differences in mortality from head trauma between hospitals with variable standards and capabilities of care. Dr. Tilford is a recognized expert in health economics and has contributed to the EMSC program for more than 10 years by participating in grant reviews, grantee meetings, and stakeholder meetings. For all these reasons and many more, it gives me a great pleasure to present this year’s award for the Outstanding EMSC Research Project to Dr. John Tilford. Congratulations.

JOHN TILFORD: It’s a great pleasure and a great honor. The project really asked, is a more aggressive treatment for pediatric head trauma worth it? And clearly it is, and I’m really happy to know that somebody thinks that our project was actually worth it, as well. I had a great project coordinator in Jeff Killingsworth, and I think we’re going to continue to publish our findings from the project. And I really think that the EMSC program, in whole, is really worth the federal investment as put into it. Thank you very much.

JANE BALL: Our next award is for the EMSC Family Member Volunteer of the Year. This award is given to a family member who has provided exemplary service that has made a significant, positive impact on addressing the emergency medical needs of children in his or her community. And we are pleased to announce that this year, we are honoring family representatives from two states. The first award goes to Linda Savoy of Louisiana.

As the mother of two beautiful girls, one having special needs, Linda intimately knows about the care requirements of children with special health care needs.

For years, she’s worked the phones and asked the hard questions to ensure that her child and other children receive the best care possible. When a need went unmet she filled it. As such, Linda, now, is one of only two Louisiana car seat technicians certified in the requirements of children with special needs. Because of her concerns about the needs of these special children within the regional Native American tribe, she built friendships that enabled her to help this community receive child car safety seats inspections and other services. But it is her ebullient personality that led her to the most personally rewarding and successful endeavor.

After graduating from the EMS-sponsored clown school, Linda became funny-faced Lulu the Clown. Through her bubbly personality, Lulu teaches children about fire safety, dog bite prevention, and how to use 911. Her cheerful and lively presentation puts children at ease and brings about both joy and change. Linda puts her skills in working with children to good use during hurricane evacuation by organizing games and storytelling to keep children entertained and calm, and she certainly needed that skill last summer.

Two years ago, Linda discovered a new way to channel her energy and passion for children. She became an active volunteer for EMSC. She currently serves as a family representative to the governor’s EMSC advisory board. In addition to being the board’s past vice-chair, Linda is a member of the Disaster Preparedness and Response Committee and chair of its Public Education and Advocacy Committee.

Linda stands out as an ever-present advocate for children’s needs. She’s relentless and successful in all her endeavors and has proven herself many times over as the ideal candidate for the recipient of this award. Therefore, I have great honor to introduce to you the first of the recipients for this year’s EMSC Family Member Volunteer of the Year Award, Linda Savoy.

LINDA SAVOY: Now, my people in Louisiana know I’m never speechless, so I’ll get you girls later. This is not a Hero Award for me; it’s actually for all of you guys. Every single one of you who came to Louisiana to help, thank you. All of you are my heroes, and my children’s heroes and all of us EMC children’s heroes. So, thank all of you for all that you do because if it wouldn’t be for you guys, we couldn’t get where we need to be. So, thank you all, again.

JANE BALL: The second winner of the EMSC Family Member Volunteer of the Year Award is Melody Mesmer of Frisco, Colorado.

Melody has served as a parent representative for Colorado’s EMSC state partnership grants since 2003. She’s currently a registered paramedic and volunteer for a busy fire protection service, a coordinator for the regional emergency medical and trauma advisory council, an instructor for EMT basic and EMT intermediate courses and a certified teacher for some of the most sought-after programs in pediatric pre-hospital education, including pediatric advanced life-support and pediatric education for pre-hospital professionals or PEPP.

One topic of discussion that enters into every course she teaches and every speech she presents is the important role and the tremendous need for family-centered care. Her passion for pediatric care goes beyond being a health-care provider, educator and advocate. She also aids the community directly through her work as a child car safety seat technician. According to fellow 911 responder, Timothy Baglan, Melody will never be satisfied just doing a job. She will always be in a leadership role, looking for processes to fix, people to educate and barriers to tear down. She’s a member of several pediatric boards, councils and committees and successfully lobbied legislators for appropriate funding for education in EMSC.

Melody has filled an important role in educating other family representatives through presentations at EMSC Grantee Meetings, the National Congress on Childhood Emergencies and an EMSC web cast. She actively mentors other family representatives in the inner mountain region helping them become better prepared to promote family-centered care in EMS and in advocating for needed services for children.

Melody’s contributions have improved the safety and well being of Colorado’s children and enhanced the ability of other state family representatives to be effective. Her passion exemplifies the level of commitment we should all strive for in this most important arena. And as such, it gives me great pleasure to present Melody Mesmer with our second EMSC Family Member Volunteer of the Year Award.

MELODY MESMER: Wow. I didn’t think I was going to be in front of the microphone this year. I just want to thank a few people that are really important and, I think, have really aided me in all of my successes. First of all, I need to thank Mr. Mike Merrill, as well as the Colorado EMST Division, for all of their support and for the nomination and for thinking of me the way that they do. It’s truly appreciated. And also to Dan and Jane and Ken and T for all of their support, as well as the IREC Region for making family representatives important in this division, in this need that our United States has. And I also need to thank the other family representatives. You guys are truly a great support, especially Shauna who is my mentor and my hero--I love you. And to my dad for breaking from his conference and hopping on a train to come over and get here today. It’s great. And to my husband and my three beautiful daughters who aren’t here but are always in the background and pushing mom and saying, “Go and do.” I love them. And thank you guys.

DAN KAVANAUGH: Our next awardee is the Community Partnership Award.

The EMSC Community Partnership of Excellence Award recognizes an organization that has taken a leadership role in and has made significant contribution to improving emergency care for children and their families. In addition, the recipient of this award must demonstrate an ability to work collaboratively with state EMSC program to improve pediatric emergency care in one or more states. And the award winner this year is the--I’m going to say this right--the Oconomowoc Junior Women’s Club of Oconomowoc, Wisconsin.

In 2001, members of the Oconomowoc Junior Women’s Club attended an international conference where EMSC hosted an informational booth for attendees. It was during the conference that the club first heard about EMSC efforts to distribute lists of recommended pediatric supplies for both basic and advanced life-support ambulances and the club immediately took action on this.

While distributing the list to local volunteer fire departments, the club discovered that the supply most often requested was the Broselow-Luten color-coded resuscitation tape. It was at this point that the women’s club shifted its focus from simply distributing information to raising funds for the purchase and distribution of Broselow tapes to all 32 fire departments in Waukesha County. Waukesha County--the Wisconsin people are going to kill me.

As the club’s relationship with their local fire departments grew, a new need was identified in 2004. Development of a prototype color-coded pediatric bag: one for basic life-support ambulances and one for advanced life-support ambulances. The primary purpose of the bags was to house all pediatric equipment in one place. And by January of last year, more than half of the fire departments had at least one set of the pediatric bags. By December of that year, Waukesha County ambulances had the pediatric bags thanks to a $24,000 grant the junior women’s club received from a private foundation.

Alex Felde, president of the Waukesha County Fire Chiefs’ Association says this about the club that, “It’s rare to see a group so committed to the quality of pre-hospital care for children.” They’re based in Oconomowoc but did not limit the scope of their project to the local firehouse. Instead, they took a macro view of the problem and chose to tackle the issue from a countywide perspective. Their success at the county level has led to a national endeavor and today junior women’s clubs in more than 30 states have expressed interest in pursuing similar pediatric color-coded bag projects. And the EMSC program is very grateful for their project and their diligence and their willingness to work with all our committed EMS volunteers across the countries. For this reason, we are proud to honor them with the 2006 EMSC Community Partnership Award. And here to accept the award for Outstanding EMSC Community Partnership is Keila Brock and she’s co-chair of the Junior Women’s Club EMSC Committee and co-chair of the General Foundation of Women’s Club Wisconsin Advocates for Children Project.

KEILA BROCK: Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you, everyone. I’m an outsider here but I do feel pretty at home having worked with EMS Professionals for the last four or five years. And I want you to know from myself and my co-chair, Elizabeth Davie who couldn’t be here today that we, so respect what you do and it’s been a wonderful experience for us working with our local EMS providers in Waukesha County and I’m happy to say that as of today, we’re a 100 percent compliant with pediatric bag. So, yes, thank you. We had one stubborn department that was saying no and we got them last week, so I’m really excited to say that. And also, just another piece of exciting news is that the project is going statewide this year for GFWC Wisconsin. So, thank you very much, this means everything to us. Thank you.

DAN KAVANAUGH: And our next award and last but definitely not the least is our Project Coordinator Award. This award honors the person that has a comprehensive understanding of his or her stat’s or territory’s EMSC-related issues and has successfully integrated the EMSC into the state or territory EMS program for the long term. And in addition, the recipient of this award must have excelled at collaborating with other organizations and developed an EMSC program or product that serves as a model for others. And this year’s winner is Lotta Allan from American Samoa. Where is Lotta?

Oh, flowers, too. For the past three years--Lotta, you’re also getting married today. Did they tell you that? Well, for the past three years, Lotta has served the EMSC Project Coordinator for American Samoa. A number of her leadership the program is partner with locally entities to provide by-stander first aid to all 240 child-care providers on the island. They’ve conducted risk watch and by-stander first aid and workshops for all private and public school staff, and offered first-aid training to teachers and bus drivers that work with children with special health care needs.

And in addition to her work with school personnel, Lotta has focused much of her energy and resources on provider education. She secured pediatric education for all ambulance personnel and invited pediatricians to the island to present the Pediatric Advanced Life Support Course to physicians and other hospital health care personnel. And her deeds continued with the High School Junior Reserve Officers Training Core Program.

And last summer during it’s one week camp, Lotta made it possible for ROTC Cadets to receive By-stander First Aid and Injury Prevention Safety Training and American Samoa’s EMSC Program also works very closely with the territory’s Department of Highway Safety to promote proper seatbelt and child car safety seat use.

Lotta’s ability to find creative ways to overcome barriers to educating people about EMSC issues led to one of her best known endeavors and that’s the EMSC Programs Partnership with McDonalds to translate an injury prevention and first-aid booklet into Samoan for distribution to families. And so only in American Samoa can you see the Golden Arches and the blue EMSC bear on the same billboard.

Lotta has also worked with the Nebraska Poison Center to provide the first ever Poison Help Line for American Samoa. And thanks to her work, the territories EMSC Advisory Committee is diverse and well respected, and includes the governor and a member of the territory’s legislature. With Lotta at it’s helm, the American Samoa EMSC Program will ensure it’s place as a model for other territories in the Pacific Region and she’s truly earned the title of hero for the work she has done to help make American Samoa a better place for children. Congratulations.

LOTTA ALLAN: This is a great surprise to me. I accept this; it’s a great pleasure and honor. I will get back with my boss when we get back to the room. I did not expect this. Usually, I’m very talkative but I’m speechless today because I did not expect this. I was just like Dr. Karl but I have a lot of people that I want to acknowledge that make this thing possible for me, starting from Dan Kavanaugh, Ken Allan, Mickey Reynolds. Well, I feel so sorry for her. Most of the time I call, I thought that it’s just lunchtime over here but it’s midnight and a little time difference. Diane Finley, a lot of people that I met along, and then my mentors from South Dakota, my boss and Naya, but especially Dave.

Dave sometimes I call him on his cell, he goes on and I make sure that he leaves a number so that when I get stuck, I called him. So, he’s always there pulling me out of, when I can’t get through, and Diane Finley. Those are the two that came through for me for the last couple of months, so thank you so much and I will never forget this. Thank you. Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart. And if ever you all decided to come to American Samoa, you know where to find me.

DAN KAVANAUGH: Well, I’d like to finish by, why don’t we all give our awardees another round of applause for all of them.

They’ve all done some marvelous work and great stories and I know many people, again, like I said before, the first day, people wearing many different hats but it never ceases to inspire me and my work when I hear about the work that you are all doing everyday through your EMSC projects and in your states, so thank you very much. I hope you all have a wonderful evening.

I think we will be back here tomorrow morning at 8:30, 9:00? Somebody has the agenda, which I don’t have in front of me. But you have your agenda; you know what time. I would ask the folks who were the award winners to please, if you wouldn’t mind coming up here, we’re going to get some additional shots with the photographer here. Thanks very much.