RPI Ambulance is more than a club; it’s an RPI service with about 20 active members. On a Friday night, while everyone is out partying, members of the club listen to their radio, waiting for a call from Public Safety to be dispatched. David Mellon, a member training to become an ambulance driver, said that they are the first response to calls from RPI, and they also get mutual aid calls from Troy. Unlike a regular ambulance call which, if not an emergency, could cost up to fifty dollars, RPI students get free rides to the hospital. And without the RPIA, its president, Sarah Toner, says, “Campus health insurance would most likely be raised.”
The club welcomes new members, but this is a professional group with training taking up eight to ten hours of their week. There is a lot of experience in the organization. Warren Hayashi, captain of RPIA, also works for Mohawk Ambulance. Hayashi actually began his college career at RPI as a physics major, but eventually his interests turned to the bio-medical field. Only a junior, he has already done many emergency procedures and has saved a life on the job. Mellon, a freshman chemical engineer, said his reason for joining the club was that he actually had prior experience.
“It’s an overgrown hobby,” said Mellon, though his modest response does not tell the whole story. Their calls range from alpha, which are situations like abdominal pains and trouble breathing, to echo, which are situations like cardiac respiratory arrest. They are professionals who spend many hours of their week training for no salary; their only motive is to help others who are in need.
Last Friday was a quiet night. The crew was kind enough to show The Poly their vehicle and take us with them on their errands. Inside was their stretcher, an in-rig oxygen stem, an automatic external defibrillator, and enough first aid supplies to cover a football season worth of injuries. On that cold Friday night, the back of the ambulance was warm and comfortable for any potential RPI patients. Mike Joseph and David Mellon demonstrated how to use the oxygen system and how to lift the stretcher onto the ambulance. They also showed us their new radios that they used to contact the ambulance crew whether in the office, located a few houses down from the Java ++, or in class (the radios also disrupt the televisions in the Union, we surprisingly found out).
As they waited diligently for a call, the team showed us some of their advance CPR techniques. One technique was when each member attempted to perform CPR by manually putting pressure on points inside the throat to keep air from entering the stomach. Though they are not certified for these procedures by the RPIA, they still practiced it on dummies to prepare for testing on it if they are to further their EMT education. To challenge the other staff, Hayashi asked the others to try the procedure on the dummy. When even Toner could not do the procedure, cracking the dummies jaw in the process, Hayashi showed them how to do it properly; and just for a little fun, he did it with his eyes closed.
Though the team is very easy-going and light-hearted when they hang out, on the job they are serious and professional. They work hard to keep their accountability, continually keeping up to date with a thick New York State protocol manual. They keep a strict code of confidentiality, making sure none of their members give out any private information of their patient’s medical records or incidents.
At the RPI football and hockey games you will see the RPIA ready to act. Currently, the club will be on duty for the opening ceremony and other events during GM Week, and they will be holding CPR classes on April 3 for anyone interested.
