In the aftermath of the recent storms that dumped heavy rain on western North Carolina, a Telecommunicator Emergency Response Taskforce (TERT) was deployed to support the Haywood County Communications Center, in providing some relief for the telecommunicators there who worked through the storm and aftermath with little time for rest or relief. In addition to being an Emergency Management watch analyst with the N.C. Department of Public Safety’s Division of Emergency Management 24-Hour Watch, Marianne Nicolaysen is Emergency Medical Dispatch (EMD) certified and gladly took up the challenge of being on the taskforce.
While working as part of the TERT, Nicolaysen received administrative and 911 calls, including from a distraught woman who advised that the caller’s mother, approximately 50 years old, was acting strangely and having difficulty breathing; they were at a rest stop on Interstate 40 and the situation was deteriorating. To make matters more difficult a toddler was in the car. As Nicolaysen began to attempt a breathing diagnostic on the mother, which is a way to count the rate of respirations to determine if someone is breathing effectively, it became obvious that she was no longer breathing at all. Following the protocol for a subject in cardiac arrest she began giving instructions for the caller, who she estimated to be in her 20s, to start CPR while routing the call to a dispatcher… READ MORE
