Jennifer Van Syckle 0:00 Our guest today was both the recipient of emergency medical care a law enforcement officer and is currently able to share some information about emergency medical services in Montana. Thank you for joining us for this episode of Talking Health in the 406. I'm your host, Jennifer Van Syckle, longtime health care worker turned health educator and our guest Francine Janik returns today, Francine is a former Highway Patrol Trooper and a current member of the Jefferson Valley Emergency Medical Services. And she's got some great stories to share today. You had to, shall we say received the services of EMS once in a prior career, which kind of sent you into the spotlight later from the sounds of it. Would you be willing to share that story with us Francine Janik 0:58 sure. In 1991, I joined the Highway Patrol my brother joined the year before. And I was finally in my own vehicle after going through a pretty rigorous field training program. And in April, I was working over in Missoula April 7, to be exact, and I was driving on highway 200, north of Bonner. And it was right after lunch. And there was we were on the accident prevention unit. It was called some people call it the Goon Squad. And our job was to go out and write tickets for people that were either speeding or had other moving violations to reduce traffic fatalities. And that was our main function it was a federally funded program. And so that day, there was a vehicle went by me going the speed limit. He didn't have any license plates on his vehicle. It was a brand new vehicle. And so I turned around on him and stopped him or tried to stop him and he went and pulled off on a little road. And I assumed he was just a local logger that was going in to feed his horses because there was a couple of horses there. But as we came to a stop, he slammed on his brakes, and I knew that things were not right. And we both exited our vehicles. And we had a gunfight at six feet. Wow, the top of my driver's side door and he shot me once I shot him multiple times. And later, he died at scene and later we found out that he had murdered two people in Douglas County, Nevada. He'd stolen their truck and stolen a bunch of cash. And then he was an expert marksman. He practiced anywhere from two to four hours a day was shooting reloaded all his weapons. And he believed he was a Vulcan and he had this really cool note on his dashboard that says if you find this vehicle abandoned don't look for me I've been beamed up by UFOs. Oh wow. And so this was just one of those things that you don't ever expect to be in you train for it. But I just happened to be the one that picked that day to stop that. Jennifer Van Syckle 3:16 And so had you been able to I don't know the processes radio back saying hey, I have this guy and pulling over or like after you were shot were you able to like somehow radio like help, here's where I am come find me or something. Francine Janik 3:31 So back then the accident prevention unit did not try to monopolize the radio traffic there was five of us officers out and we stopped a lot of vehicles and dispatch centers just usually could not unless it was very important that we get information on patient that person we didn't typically use radio traffic we just handled the situation that particular day his shot went through my radio mic on my handheld that was on my person and so I couldn't even use that radio and I he was laying under my door and my car so I had to cover him and go to my radio and I call for backup. And my backup was only a few minutes away but they had a hard time finding me because I was back in the trees and but they came and they they called an ambulance and MESI came and picked me up and in fact, the paramedic that day that took care of me is my boss now Terry Mullins he was the one that took care of me that day when I got shot that's Jennifer Van Syckle 4:33 a small very small Montana world thirty more than 35 years later. Francine Janik 4:38 Yeah 30 years ago on April 7 was Jennifer Van Syckle 4:41 thirty okay. Wow. That's amazing. That's Francine Janik 4:45 but I was the worst patient I wanted to direct all my patient care Jennifer Van Syckle 4:52 oh my gosh, I believe it I believe it That's That's intense. Did you did you remain a Trooper after that with the highway patrol. Francine Janik 5:00 I stayed on until 95. But I had multiple surgeries and my shoulder, my leg and they couldn't fix, I had lost quite a bit of the use of my left shoulder. And so, at that time, I decided that a medical retirement probably would be best because many nights, I worked out of the Butte station, and I was the only patrol officer on from the Idaho border to the Missoula County line to Helena, to Bozeman. And when you're stopping suspects, and you're the only one there with very little back up, it's not very smart to be working only at about 60% of your capacity. Yeah, yeah. Jennifer Van Syckle 5:37 Oh my gosh, well, kudos to everybody in that profession, because I know I couldn't. Personally I don't think I didn't handle working in that in any capacity. One other thing I wanted to visit with you about to also is the AEDs in Montana, because you've mentioned the AEDs are in ambulances. And the Montana EMS program has worked hard to get AEDs everywhere where where I've seen him in libraries and gyms and here and there, but where else are we going to find AEDs? Francine Janik 6:10 Well, let me maybe talk a little bit about the history of the AEDs. In working on the ambulance in like 96-97, they created an EMT defibrillator program in the state of Montana, and that's one of the very first semi automatic AEDs that were available for just about any ambulance service before they were all manual, and so only paramedics could use them. But the new semi automatics can command it was a LifePak 300. And it was a beast of a machine. And so ambulance services started purchasing those. Those AED they're very expensive. We were fortunate enough in Whitehall that the Gollden Sunlight Mine purchased our first AED. In fact, I still have the sister to it that the mind had is still on the garage. We traded ours off a long time ago. And then as AEDs progressed, the first one to jump on the bandwagon to help fund AEDs in the state was Town Pump. Oh, interesting. And they had multiple grant cycles to give fire departments and ambulance services, those first AEDs out there to get them started because they knew they were a lifesaver. Then the Helmsley Foundation, stepped up and has provided grants for AEDs and for cardiac monitors. And so it's been now 10 years ago when they first started their grants with AEDs. And they had I think it was it was Billings Clinic or St. V's did the initial AED. And they had grants for ambulances fire departments and schools that they could purchase, they would provide them the AEDs. And then here about eight years ago, there was a large grant that provided the LifePak fifteens. With the very first year that they come out, there were a cardiac monitor that done 12 lead ekgs, they provided the transmission, that totally transmission for any service and they were free to any service that wanted it in the state of Montana, which was incredible. And then a year or two later, they gave the Lucas devices out, or what is the LUCAS device, the LUCAS device, the Lucas two is a device that you put on a patient that's in cardiac arrest, and it has a plunger and a suction cup on it and it goes in the middle of the patient's chest. And it provides chest compressions for patients which with fewer and fewer EMTs out there. It allows us to free up some hands and to be able to move patients that are in cardiac arrest if we need to. And it provides very consistent cardiac arrest that provides very reliable generation of blood pressures and pulse and gets that circulation of blood to the brain and the other vital organs. And then just recently, the last Hemsley project was the AEDs for law enforcement. And that has been just an incredible project. Every law enforcement agency in the state of Montana, that includes Border Patrol, FBI, I've heard brand inspector and inspectors fish and game, amazing County deputies, city officers, Montana highway patrol, literally anybody that packs a weapon was offered an AED not all agencies took advantage of it, but most of the state agencies took advantage of it. And we have had numerous cardiac arrest saves and State of Montana with those devices because law enforcement is out there and rolling in in those communities all the time and they can move a police car much faster down the road than we can move an ambulance that weighs 13 or 14,000 pounds. And they're able to get that initial care because that's really what saves people's lives is hands only CPR with the addition of an AED as soon as possible after that cardiac arrest starts. Jennifer Van Syckle 10:29 And I know I've had people say, you know, well, I don't I don't know how to use an AED or I'm not certified to use one but AEDs now out my understanding is they're pretty self explanatory. Francine Janik 10:40 They talk to you, they tell you exactly what to do. We were getting AEDs when my son was very little and he was able to proficiently at the age of about five put an AED on faster than most of the EMS personnel were just because it's, they have pictures, there's pictures on the pads, and the minute you turn it on, it just is so inclusive on the directions and you can get them so that they speak Spanish or their foreign languages. And they just are very, very simple to use and they're very safe for anybody that uses them and they work. I got to witness the Highway Patrol's very first cardiac arrest safe. On Cardwell Hill on the interstate, we got a call that there was a semi trailer on fire. And I was at home and but there was another ambulance crew on call. And so I said, Well, you guys should be able to handle it. You'll just be standing by and doing safety for the fire department while he put this fire out. And the ambulances gone about four minutes maybe. And there was a there CPR in progress, I don't think Why would there be CPR in progress. And so I got in a personal car with my dad and another EMT and we ran to the scene in the personal vehicle and we got there and that the highway patrol officers that a person that I had trained as an EMT, our name is Barb Armstrong. And she had a trainee with her for the Highway Patrol and they had gotten him out of the semi truck because they found him unresponsive, no pulse, they then hands only CPR on him. shocked him four times with the AED. And as I stepped on seen the guy gas for the very first time and everybody kind of looked like what do we do well we will treat him now? Wow, Jennifer Van Syckle 12:25 we saved him. Oh my gosh. So trucks still on fire in the background while the highway patrol drags the man out of his semi Yep, to the front of the semi so they could treat him sounds like a scene from a fabulous action movie. Francine Janik 12:25 And it was just so cool. The guy they figured had broken hearts to know because of the stress from the semi his favorite vehicle catching on fire and he was just right for a cardiac arrest. And we saved him and he was able to go home with a different a defibrillator later implanted in his chest and he has not had a single issue since no loss of brain function. No physical impairments from that episode. Jennifer Van Syckle 13:06 Wow. That's amazing. So when you see somebody collapse, don't hesitate to grab that AED know, go for it. Even if they never touched one in your life. You know, there's schools Francine Janik 13:18 now have them we've donated the Jefferson Valley EMS and rescue is helped secure like for the Whitehall schools. There is an AED in every gymnasium. And then we were able to give them two traveling ones to put on their buses for their sporting teams or wherever team is traveling. So that in case they go to a place where there isn't an AED or during transit that they have an AED with them all the time. Wow. Wow, that's Jennifer Van Syckle 13:47 awesome. Fabulous. Do you know if other schools or places in Montana have been so lucky to receive AEDs? Francine Janik 13:55 There's quite a few of them have. And I know that there's been several cardiac arrest saves across the state in schools. We don't think of children, especially people under 18 Having cardiac arrest events, but there are they have abnormalities in the cardiac rhythm that are undetected even in sporting events. And because they're young, they're never given an EKG and you just don't think that that might happen. In Townsend, a young man that was a basketball player collapsed and cardiac arrest and they were able to save him. There was a young gal in the Bozeman school district that was only like in the fourth or fifth grade that collapsed. And they used an AED on her and saved her. And so and we get schools, we have a gathering of lots of people of all ages. And so it's just an ideal place to have an AED in case one is needed. Jennifer Van Syckle 14:49 Yeah, definitely. It's amazing. It's scary to think about a fourth or fifth grader just collapsing and you just hope that there's an AED in your child's school that would be there, Francine Janik 15:00 yes. And the teachers and the staff are able to use it are trained to use. And that's the other big piece to it is, the more people that we can train statewide to do hands only CPR means more people that we can save from cardiac arrest. Because we know that a person in cardiac arrest, we need to get to them with in less than six minutes and restore some kind of circulation. And we need to stop that chaotic activity of the heart so that it can restart in a normal rhythm. And so the more people that know, hands only CPR, and the closer AEDs are the people. The more people we're going to save, yeah. Jennifer Van Syckle 15:43 And so all else fails hands only CPR, which is if I see somebody and I don't want to do mouth to mouth, at least just start those compressions on their chest. Francine Janik 15:57 They know that statistically, in through studies that hands only CPR is as effective if not more effective for the first seven or 10 minutes, then CPR with breaths, just because we take too long and have too much time off the chest, trying to give breaths. And so the best thing we can do is just get in there and do compressions and get that blood circulating. And the motion of that compression actually sucks air in and pushes air out of the lungs enough to oxygenate that patient and to keep their their oxygen enough to get some Jennifer Van Syckle 16:31 oxygen to the brain. Interesting. And because that was always at least for me, the worst part, you're sitting there training on the mannequins and you're like, oh, no, you didn't you get the head at the wrong angle. Nope the breath didn't go in all the way. And it's like, ah, ah, come on. So the hands only CPR sounds kind of sounds like the golden ticket that you know, we could get into schools and teach it. It's just everywhere. That would be fabulous. Francine Janik 16:56 Before COVID in Whitehall every year we went in and taught everyone from kindergarten through all that the teachers and paraprofessionals everybody was instructed on hands only CPR. Maybe a kindergartener can't do CPR on an adult, but they can tell another adult how to do it if they don't know how I mean, kindergarteners sometimes are your best teachers. And we also teach them how to call 911 and when to call 911. And it's amazing how that education, they never forget it and they do very well under emergency situations. And so Jennifer Van Syckle 17:30 if I'm like a first grade teacher and listening to this, and I'm not in Whitehall, but it would be really cool to teach my class get my class learning hands on CPR, where where do they call where should we go to direct people for help for that, Francine Janik 17:46 so a lot of the ambulance services have received kits to teach hands only CPR. It started in Bozeman with a Gallatin heart rescue. And now it is the Montana heart rescue and there's been hundreds and hundreds of mannequins purchased so that ambulance services or fire departments in the local areas can have the mannequins to go teach this hands only CPR and they're given the videos. And so just call your local EMS provider and see if there's somebody that can do that education and it's usually the hands only pieces usually free. Jennifer Van Syckle 18:24 Thank you for joining us for this episode of Talking Health in the 406. And thank you to Francine for sharing some great information and stories. If you'd like to learn more, check out our website at TalkingHealthinth406.mt.gov. And join us again for our next episode with Francine until next time, take care. Transcribed by https://otter.ai