LAURINBURG — Scotland County EMS worked on sharpening its life-saving skills on Tuesday by participating in a practice drill — part of which came from the air, simulating a “hot load” onto a helicopter.

“A hot load is a term used to describe how a patient is loaded into the aircraft once on the ground,” said Robert Sampson, assistant director and operations officer of Scotland County EMS. “Once the aircraft lands, the patient is loaded into the aircraft while the aircraft is still running.

“The pilot will not shut down the aircraft except in an emergency situation,” continued Sampson. “This technique is used when the patient can be assessed by the flight crew and loaded into the aircraft for departure within 10 minutes.”

Examples of such incidents are vehicle accidents, falls, or injuries with heavy machinery. Of course, it is not limited to these situations.

Cape Fear Valley Air Care was the helicopter on site for the training.

“The purpose of today’s exercise was to conduct joint training with Valley Air and focus patient trauma assessments, train on communication with EMS and the flight crew, and focus on transfer of care between EMS and the flight crews,” said Sampson. “This is the first time we have conducted this type of training with Cape Fear Valley Air.

“We completed three classes, which allowed us to do the training in smaller groups,” continued Sampson. “There was a 30- to 45-minute classroom PowerPoint which talked about how to contact or cancel an aircraft, scene patient process prior to the aircraft landing, which consisted of what information to provide the incoming aircraft. We went over on-scene operations and safety, in ambulance handoff and transitioning to the aircraft. Once the classroom portion was completed, we spent about an hour putting all we learned into motion with a mock drill.”

The city of Laurinburg Fire Department was also in attendance for the landing zone.

“It is protocol that when there is a helicopter landing, the fire department has to set up a landing zone,” said Laurinburg Fire Chief Jordan McQueen. “We converse with the helicopter and let them know of any hazards that may be in the area and we standby until the helicopter is no longer on scene.”

Teamwork between the agencies is an integral part of helping people and saving lives.

“The purpose of the training was not only to test each agency’s patient care skills but to test both agency’s communication skills and to build professional relationships,” said Sampson.

The simulation began with EMS responding to a patient that had fallen from the playground equipment at Dragon Park on Turnpike Road. After the patient was loaded onto the stretcher he was driven to the other side of the park to await the helicopter.

Dontae Rowland, an 11-year-old Scotland County resident, was the patient volunteer. Once loaded on the helicopter, the crew took him on a 5-minute helicopter ride over Laurinburg before setting back down on the ground.

“I would like to thank Cape Fear Valley Air for reaching out to us to conduct this joint training exercise,” said Sampson. “Both agencies were able to get a lot out of the training.”

JJ Melton can be reached at jmelton@laurinburgexch.wpenginepowered.com.