Volunteers spread thin, needing help from the community with a big heart
Every human being living in Barnsdall, or just passing through our community has the potential to need emergency medical care. At the present time our First Responders are doing a fantastic job in patient care but they cannot transport patients to nearby medical facilities. Once a call has been made asking for an ambulance, it is, at best, an hour and twenty minutes from the answered call to arrival at the nearest hospital. “At best” means that an ambulance is in Bartlesville city limits or Pawhuska city limits and is ready to roll to Barnsdall. Realistically, now an ambulance responding to Barnsdall may be in Fairfax or Nowata when they are notified of a need in Barnsdall. They may have to complete what they are doing in those communities before they can come to our aid in Barnsdall. When family or friends are waiting on an ambulance to transport their loved ones, even ten minutes seems like an eternity. Do you really want to wait until an ambulance gets here from somewhere as far away as Fairfax or Nowata when we could have our own ambulance that is ready to roll as soon as it is dispatched?
Several volunteers have spent a lot of time and made a lot of effort to give Barnsdall a glimmer of hope in getting our ambulance service up and running. Having our own ambulance again could be within our grasp, BUT, volunteers are going to have to step up and give a show of hands. Volunteers should be willing to follow through in taking the training and becoming qualified to volunteer with Barnsdall’s emergency medical services. There’s one more thing. After training we need you to volunteer! Tell us if you want to be a part of making it possible for our community to have an ambulance service again. Don’t sit back and wait for someone else to take the training and make the sacrifice of their time. It might be that they are waiting on you!
In his inaugural address on January 20, 1961. John F. Kennedy said, “Ask not what your country can do for you but ask what you can do for your country.” Our community needs willing and able-bodied volunteers to stand up and ask what they can do for their community. If willing people would pull together and make up their minds that they want to be an active part of a local volunteer ambulance service, we could have the standard of care that only the towns of Shidler, Hominy, Skiatook, and Pawhuska, in Osage County have.
The work has been done by a handful of volunteers toward returning ambulance service to Barnsdall. We are to the place now that we need to know if there are enough interested potential volunteers to provide that care to the citizens and visitors in Barnsdall. We have an offer from a very qualified instructor to train volunteers in patient care, use of equipment, driving an emergency vehicle, etc. Due to funding from a grant we will be able to offer the classes to volunteers at no cost to the student. Without sincere interest and willingness to jump in and say, “I’ll do this for my family and my community,” we are at a standstill. Four people who are all First Responders for Barnsdall, and EMTs for Pawhuska Ambulance Service cannot carry the load without others to help them.
The volunteers that have been working the last few years to find a way to provide ambulance service to Barnsdall, can go no further. Without interest and desire from the community, nothing further can happen. We will still have First Responders who will go where there is a need and do what they can while waiting on an ambulance from who knows where? Is this what we want for our community? Aren’t we the community that has been known as B-I-G-H-E-A-R-T? Present volunteers have gone as far as they can go. Without more people willing to volunteer their time and talents to become Emergency Medical Responders, Barnsdall will have to remain a community without their own ambulance service. And volunteers of all sorts are needed – help during fundraisers, office help, cleanup, babysitters during emergencies, etc. Don’t think you can’t help just because you feel you can’t handle the pressure in a crisis. You can help!
I no longer live in Barnsdall but I have family and friends there and care for the community a great deal. It is a scary thought that a citizen or visitor might lose their life due to the wait for an ambulance for transport. Nursing home residents, school kids, and citizens alone need the security of knowing if they became ill or were involved in a serious accident, an ambulance is just seconds away ready for transport.
Please step up and call (918) 695-7402 for more information.
Teri D. Wickware
Barnsdall – Bred and Raised
This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 7th, 2012 at 10:51 pm. It is filed under Barnsdall, Barnsdall Panthers, Letters to the Editor, Lifestyles, Opinion.
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