July 20, 2003
By BEV DARR
Of the Courier-Post 

Amber King, who took the call on Saturday, June 7, said this was the first time she had used the EMD cards to help someone choking on food.

After giving the rolex replica uk callers instructions about how to do the Heimlich maneuver, King was very happy to hear it worked – on the second try – and the man was okay.

“I was excited when I released the call,” King said. “I jumped up and told Mike (Hall, Marion County 911 director) and Anita Beilsmith, our assistant supervisor, who was walking in the door as I released the call.”

King added that the EMD system, “really helps out the callers a lot and really does save people.”

Hall said that King, “kept her cool and provided the swiss replica watches instructions clearly and with confidence to the caller. Amber has been with us for almost 18 months – she did an awesome job.”

King is grateful the local 911 personnel are using the EMD cards, which provide “pre-arrival instructions,” because, “there are a lot of people who probably wouldn’t make it by the time the First Responders get there. EMD is a really good thing to do and would be really helpful for other agencies that do not have it. And I’m sure that the community would love it.”

Hall reported the life-saving call was received at the 911 dispatch office at 3:24 p.m. on June 7. Someone called from the Mark Twain Lake Visitors Center and reported a 50-year-old man had a piece of hot dog in his throat.

King immediately began the process of providing EMD instructions to fake watches the caller, while her partner notified Ralls County 911 and requested First Responders go to the scene.

The cards are filed according to the problem, so she got the card on choking, which told how to do the Heimlich maneuver.

The caller was a female, “and when I told her we needed to do the Heimlich maneuver, she gave the phone to a male,” King said. “When I told him how to do the maneuver, he gave the phone back to the lady.”

The man tried the Heimlich, but it did not work on his first try, King said. The woman said it wasn’t working, so, “I told her we needed to do it again. He tried it again, and the second time he did it, they got it (the piece of hot dog) out. He was completely fine afterward. I was really, really happy.”

Hall noted that although the Heimlich was successful, emergency personnel went to the scene to verify that the man had no complications from choking.

He agreed with King on the importance of providing the EMD instructions, explaining that, “before we had EMD in Marion County, the only thing that dispatchers were allowed to tell callers was, ‘Help is on the way.’ Today, 911 is truly the ‘first on scene’ and we can provide instructions that can save lives.”

This is especially beneficial in a situation such as the one on June 7 at Mark Twain Lake, Hall said, “when you have potentially life-threatening calls like this in a rural setting, where it may take a little longer for an ambulance or the First Responders to arrive. It’s times like this when seconds really do count.”

Posted with permission thanks to the Hannibal Courier-Post.