DeKalb County Emergency Medical Technicians Marie Tupin and and Jamie Parsley were nominated and won the 2017 Region IV Upper Cumberland EMS Director’s Association EMT of the Year Award Friday.
Turpin received a 2017 “Paramedic of the Year” award and Parsley was honored as “EMT of the Year” for Region IV. Turpin was one of three “Paramedic of the Year” award recipients in the region.
“I would like to congratulate these outstanding and dedicated EMTs,” said Hoyt Hale, DeKalb County EMS Director. “The show exemplifying qualities daily as well as compassion for their patients.”
The pair were nominated for their daily diligence but also for a call on July 30, 2017 received at 1:55 p.m. for a two-car accident with injuries on Nashville Hwy in DeKalb County.
Responding to a possible entrapment call where the caller was unsure if the male patient was breathing, gas leaking from one of the vehicles and no airbags deployed the team was prepared for the worst. As more information came in, the call got even more critical and Life Force 2 was put on standby.
Arriving at the scene, they witnessed a vehicle with significant damage to the driver’s door with an unresponsive 17-year old male driver who was not breathing. Once a C-spine alignment was administered the patient began to breathe but had unequal pupillary response with a left conjugate gaze. Turpin requested air medical to be launched due to signs of a closed-head injury. Patient remained unresponsive to continued treatment and his vitals remained unstable.
When the patient became accessible and total spinal immobilization was established he was moved to a waiting ambulance.
“The life of this young man was in the hands of tehse two EMTs,” Hale said.
The patient was intubated with the assistance of Life Force 2 medical staff and flown to a level one trauma center where he remained in the hospital for about 25 days and expected to make a full recovery thanks to the efforts of the emergency responders.
“Being mothers of their own boys, these two outstanding EMS personnel put all emotions aside and used every effort and years of training to keep this young man alive,” Hale said. “Many other prehospital providers from our region have provided great service for their community and deserve to be recognized but I feel this crew deserves this award due to their hard work and pulling together as Turpin and Parsley did giving this young man a new chance on life.”
