LOUISVILLE, Ky. — When winter weather hits the area, Metro Louisville EMS prepares for the worst, but hopes for the best.
There was a lot of action at Metro Louisville EMS headquarters on Friday morning around 10 a.m. You could find the overnight crews returning after a long night out responding to calls. Paramedics on the next shift were loading up the ambulances before hitting the roads for 16-hour shifts. That’s longer than the workday when there is not inclement weather.
“With continuous 16-hour shifts or back-to-back shifts, usually you have just enough time to shower, grab a bite to eat and get five or six hours of sleep before you have to get back in the next day,” Major Jen Polk said.
Once her crews hit the road, she loads up in her work vehicle to assist with calls. She’s not in an ambulance, but a crossover, so she has flexibility to assist wherever help is needed.
At the start of the morning, things were a little quiet, so she drove around to see how the roads were. To her surprise, they were not too bad. Most primary routes were just wet. Neighborhood roads had some snow cover. From 10 a.m. to noon, she only hit a few slick spots.
What was unusual was that there were hardly any other drivers on the roads. She said that is helpful, because it limits the number of accidents they need to respond to.
“There really hasn’t been too many accidents,” Polk said around 10:30 a.m. Friday. “I am really shocked because, typically, when we know there will be bad weather, whether it is rain, snow or ice, we anticipate more car accidents. We just know it.”
Even though there were fewer emergencies to respond to, she encountered an ice-covered tree that toppled a home and some interstate spin offs while checking out the roads.
The road conditions don’t put a stop to medical emergencies. Crews pulled a stretcher out on a snow-covered road to transport a patient experiencing stroke-like symptoms. Another crew responded to a broken bone during a sledding accident. There was anther call to assist someone who slipped on the ice and hit their head.
This weather event is nowhere near the worst she has seen during her 20 years at Metro Louisville EMS. However, if she was needed for this life-saving job, she would stay put at home just like it seems most Louisville residents did Friday.