Trio earn tactical medical training

COEUR d’ALENE – Kootenai Tribe Police Chief Joel Minor, Kootenai Tribe Police Officer Dave Kramer, and Boundary Volunteer Ambulance EMS Chief Jeff Lindsey earned certified tactical medicine instructor status last week after participating in the Law Enforcement Street Survival/Tactical Medicine T3 (Train the Trainer) course in Coeur d’Alene.

The Kootenai Tribe of Idaho Police Department hosted the three-day course, which provided elite, hands-on medical and tactical training led by Trilogy HSE, a Florida-based company that trains law enforcement personnel throughout the United States and Internationally.

Trilogy staff instructors, Mark Baldwin and Cory Perry, led the course in Coeur d’Alene last week, where Washington and Idaho state law enforcement and EMS personnel received their certification as tactical medicine instructors.

Minor said the department participated in the training in order to bring it back to Boundary County and educate other first responders with the life-saving skills necessary for their day-to-day duties.

“The training was excellent and we will be teaching it to first responders in our community,” Minor said. “The goal is to work as a teams to save the lives of people in our community and anyone passing through our county.”

According to Trilogy’s course outline, it is the only “train the trainer” program available for sworn law enforcement officers and instructors serving in, or anticipating, a training role. Based on Tactical Combat Casualty Care concepts, the course provides the non-medical, first responder necessary skills to provide critical, life-saving intervention until EMS arrives. Upon completion, Trilogy’s goal is for the instructor to gain the knowledge, tools and resources to provide tactical medicine training to other law enforcement personnel within their agency or department.

Trilogy President, Mike Massaro, is a veteran of the United States Armed Forces who has served as a Navy hospital corpsman, Air Force aeromedical evacuation technician and an Army military police officer.

Massaro’s vision is to bridge the gap between law enforcement and EMS personnel across the country in order to better serve citizens in need of medical attention. Massaro said that typically medical responders and law enforcement personnel only focus on their area of expertise, but mutual training needs to take place so that every First Responder has the skills and tools to save a life when they arrive first on scene.

According to the Washington, D.C., Fire and EMS Department, medical response time can be up to 30 minutes, depending on the geographic location of the call.

“These skills are critical, because if a victim loses a limb or is inflicted with a femoral gun shot wound, and no one is there to apply a proper tourniquet, that person could bleed out within three minutes,” Massaro explained. “We train law enforcement and EMS personnel the fundamental skills in tourniquet and combat gauze application; that has not always been a part of the EMS curriculum, because if a person does not apply a proper tourniquet, the victim could lose a limb and this has resulted in unnecessary deaths, as victims have just been left to bleed to death.”

Massaro said, by teaming up, Minor, Kramer and Lindsey are setting the perfect model for every community across the country.

“With Boundary County’s remote, geographic location, the First Responder’s skills can be a matter of life and death and Minor set this course up because he recognized that need,” Massaro said. “I think it is fantastic that the three of them are setting this example and they are all on the cutting edge of where law enforcement and EMS personnel need to be.”

“This course provided great, life-saving instruction that we will now be able to share with other First Responders as Tactical Medicine Instructors,” Kramer said. “It was great having Boundary Volunteer Ambulance Chief Lindsey participate with us because, with his experience, we will be able to build a great training program together to offer to the local First Responders of our county.”

According to Massaro, the course builds upon the fundamentals of first-aid and emergency care, introduces the latest concepts in emergency treatment, utilizes a tactical operations mannequin, along with machine gun simulators and blast simulators, and provides students with the most realistic tactical medicine training available.

With machine gun and sound effects of war, Trilogy sets up a safe environment where students can practice their skills in a realistic setting. The TOMM mannequin can be operated on and it is able to verbalize what the instructor has programmed it to say, in order to let the student know what he or she needs to do in that situation.

“When we introduce the sound effects, and the TOMM mannequin is bleeding and speaking, you can see the students’ physical posture change and their game face emerges.” Massaro said. “We are able to set up realistic scenes where the student can practice skills that they have been taught, but have been unable to practice or demonstrate in real-life situations.”

Trilogy will be returning to Nampa, Idaho for another Law Enforcement Tactical Training course Nov. 8-10. Information: www.trilogyhse.com