Where we met...





Audra and I met while working (all volunteer, of course) at Interior Ambulance Rescue Squad in Fairbanks, AK. We spent about 4.5 years there before getting married and going to medical school in Detroit.

Official Ensignia
This patch includes the important features of our job: patient care, rescue and extrication (with the Hurst equipment, such as the famous "Jaws of Life").



This is "1173," the second-out ambulance. IARS operates three ambulances, with a manned station for the first crew and reliance on volunteer "first-responders" or other EMTs at/near the station when multiple ambulances are required on calls. The other option, or course, is to get "mutual aid" (a fancy term for help) from which ever other department can make a timely response to the location.



We spent most of our time training. Lots of hours committed to working with the extrication tools tearing up junk cars (which means going WAY beyond anything needed to free a patient, see below) or in the class room, going over everything from treatment protocols to the latest gizmo on the rigs.

Below we are training at Miller Salvage in Fairbanks. Here the fender is being crushed in order to allow access to the door hinges, since the jaws just don't cram into tiny places.



Sometimes the 80 pound jaws get some torsion on them and you have to wonder who is driving who...



When all is said and done, the junked junker looks like you basic Alaskan set of wheels (without doors, of course).



Most emergency services in Alaska are trained on the use of the Army's MAST program. If there are bad and/or remote scenes which require rapid transport, Army helicopter's may be the only life saver. Why transport 80-90 miles on the road, what can fly 30 minutes?



Our Last Picture with our Team


Here is a picture of the front line ambulance, crew and some friends who kindly came to the wedding while on duty. They sat in the back in case a call came in.


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