Trinity Life Support, CSD

A grateful THANK YOU, Mr. Edward’s, for taking the morning to plow TLS driveway. The TLS crew appreciates it Wishing everyone a safe and fun snow day!!

Supporters of TCLS Measure H and I Jose Acosta, Hayfork Carl Adams, Hayfork Scott Alvord, Weaverville Deborah Amos, Trinity Center...Continue reading

Best time of the year, Giving to others, by Packing The Patrol Car... Helping our Trinity County Children receive a new and/or unwrapped toy for the holidays!

TCLS crews and staff are so very thankful... To those who shared their stories To those who wrote informational letters To those who submitted letters to the editor To the Trinity Journal ... To Mountain Communities Healthcare District To Voters The words "Thank You" seem so small Our hearts are full We are ready to work Thank you See more

What will happen Without H and I, cuts in medical staffing are happening Two EMTs quit last month, moved to other jobs, their pay and benefits better working at the dump or a clinic, rather than here providing life-saving care... What will happen? This will continue Hayfork has been staffed basic life support an average of 1 week per month for the last couple months. What will happen? This will continue if we have EMTs to work If Hayfork 303 does not have a crew, Weaverville 301 will be responding to care for that Hayfork patient, so don’t think you are okay if you don’t live in Hayfork, Hyampom, Post Mountain or Wildwood What will happen? You are at risk of waiting for emergency care TCLS has always been dedicated to high quality patient care and training of emergency medical responders -- that won’t change But our ability to keep competent staff, that will change, and not for the better What will happen? You can intervene, you can make the difference YES YES H and I

Chad Smith, Emergency Room Physician Trinity Hospital I started working at the hospital in 2014 and moved here permanently a year later. It was my impression at the time and even more so currently, that the EMS units are the most valuable component in Trinity County’s emergency healthcare delivery. As an ER doc, I see the immediate treatment interventions of EMS that cannot be provided by any other entity. Airway control, administration of oxygen or glucose, compression of... hemorrhage, fluid resuscitation, recognition and initial treatment of cardiac and neurologic catastrophes- these are the first few that come to mind. I have watched you perform while understaffed and under-funded for several years now, and despite that we have a decent crew of competent EMS providers. I am very concerned about these measures not passing as many people do not realize how unsafe it is to run this large county with 2 ambulances, let alone when one or both are engaged in transport. This also means paying for talent to stay in the area, not just bodies filling a seat. It's a small price to pay to have a medic at your door quickly treating what would otherwise be in their absence a bad outcome. Thank you for your years of compassionate care in the community. I hope people do the right thing for their families and their neighbors and vote this through. -chad

TCLS Crew from way back! Good days!

Every 15 Minutes Mock Accident Scenario at Trinity High School

For anyone who isn't sure how essential a high quality local paramedic ambulance service is, I invite you to consider this... I've been a paramedic for a long time, and have run more than 12,000 calls over the course of my career. In 1993 I helped organize Trinity County Life Support as the nonprofit local service it remains today. Although I'm no longer affiliated with TCLS, as a resident of their service area I remain an enthusiastic supporter. My family has had occasion to... call for TCLS three times over the past few years, each time for my mother-in-law, who lived a full life until age 99. In every case, TCLS provided exactly the care Mary needed, delivered promptly and skillfully by crews who also demonstrated exceptional compassion. On one of those occasions, Mary collapsed unconscious in front of me. Because of my own training and experience, I was not about to carry her to my car and drive her to the hospital. As soon as I determined she was breathing and had a pulse, I called 9-1-1 to request the ambulance, then returned to her side to care for her. I knew I could not drive safely while maintaining a constant assessment of my patient and intervening if she stopped breathing. Many people believe they can drive a critically ill or injured family member to a hospital, however that often has such a poor outcome that many hospitals have a slang term for it: "Canopy Code". That refers to patients who are delivered by private auto under the emergency department driveway canopy in cardiac arrest ("Code Blue") because their vital functions couldn't be maintained during the car ride. Others believe they can just call for an EMS helicopter from Redding. Although a wonderful resource, their response times to Trinity County are typically 20 minutes or more, they are often unable to fly to us because of weather or heavy smoke, and are sometimes tied up on other missions. Their charges for service are typically more than $30,000, and health insurance often pays only a small portion of that. I urge our neighbors to keep that in mind as they cast a vote to pay $45 per developed property. To put it bluntly: There is simply no substitute for a nearby paramedic ambulance. The crew can arrive promptly, provide immediate stabilizing care, and deliver the patient safely to a hospital or helicopter, often in better condition than they were found in. In TCLS our communities have the added advantage of a locally managed nonprofit service with more than 25 years of experience. They are not distracted by desires to expand into other counties, make profits at the expense of quality service, or cut corners to focus on other aspects of their business. EMS is all they do, and they do it well. TCLS has spent a quarter of a century supporting our communities. They have earned the support of those communities. They already have my family's Yes votes on Measures H and I. We hope they can count on our neighbors for Yes votes, too. Larry Masterman, MICP Weaverville

Community, we are near knowing what will happen with Measures H and I. An offer from Supervisor-Elect Liam Gogan. He had been hearing from people, retired and living on their Social Security how hard it is to find the annual $45. He offers an idea to help by fundraising, funds to help offset all or part of the $45 for those most affected. Awesome offer, lots of details to be worked out, but in keeping with Trinity spirit of neighbors and helping. Stable footing is needed ...for the ambulance service. A long term established lack of true cost reimbursement from Medi-Cal and Medicare has led us here. Reforms are underway. Ambulance providers may soon be viewed as healthcare providers rather than ride-givers. Reimbursement from government is based upon medically necessary transport, rather than care given. The system is antiquated, change is slow. Reforms have been underway, with great government reports on the needs of rural systems available for 20 years. We have seen more change in the last five years than the first 15. Rural providers and communities are facing these decisions all over our Country. The change is not coming quickly enough for any services that are not already a special district. Read more on our website https://tcls.org/operations/#annual-report and the campaign website www.tlscsd.org As you cast your vote, remember that 90% of TCLS calls for 911 ambulance service are for local people. Our goal to keep it viable for you. YES YES H and I

Ed McClain, Hayfork, California It’s pretty fresh in my mind, even though it happened on 1-16-11. At about 5:30 in the morning I was at work when I started sweating, got heartburn (I never get heartburn) and had never had this feeling before. I got off work at 7, went home and sat down in my easy chair. About 7:15 it got a lot worse, I felt like something was sitting on my chest with a heat torch. I asked my girlfriend to call 911. They got there in 2 and a half minut...es. The feeling of heaviness in my chest was increasing. They started to assess me and put the oximeter on my finger. I said I don’t feel too good. The next thing I woke up on the floor. What happened? The Paramedic, Dan Layne, said You had an event. My heart had stopped and they defibrillated me. It was too foggy to fly that morning, and they took me to Trinity Hospital, where I received blood thinners. The ambulance then transferred me to Mercy Hospital where they put in a stent. My main coronary artery was plugged 98%. I was out of the hospital the next day, alive and feeling good. If they had not been there, I would not be here now. If not for the ambulance crew and service, I would not be alive. I feel like a lot of other people in this small town might not be here either.

Support from Dero and Sherry Forslund We all tend to take the Trinity County Life Support for granted until you need to call them. When you do need to call them you are thankful that they are there. We have had to make that call several times in the last year. While they show up when they are called the thing we may not be aware of is that their initial assessment and decision making guides what needs to be done for you. They are the ones who can call the chopper if that is ...what is needed and they can do that at the scene of the emergency. If they were not there the time it would take to get to the Emergency Room, if you can get there, may make the difference in the outcome. The ambulance service is an important part of the medical system in the County. We have a hospital, Emergency Room and several clinics, and doctors’ offices to meet our regular medical needs. If you or your family member needs help and you are unable to get to one of these facilities and you need to call the ambulance, be aware that they bring someone trained to know what kind of help that is needed. If needed they can call for the necessary air support or provide transport to the correct facility. Knowing what is needed may be the difference in the outcome. Please support Measures H and I the life they save may be yours or a loved one.

My name is Susan Smith "Suzie", and I have worked alongside as a team with Trinity County Life Support and all of the volunteers since 1981. As a Critical Care Flight Nurse. My first thought is that I cannot imagine Trinity County (TC) without the advanced EMS services they currently receive. This summer (2019) was one of the most tragic, traumatic injury summers I have experienced in your area. I have spent nights awake thinking about the trauma both physical and emotional/...spiritual the patients and the care givers have endured. The level of care given by the crews is continually growing with education and desire to be better care givers. I know there would have been more fatalities in your area without the expertise of TCLS. The advanced practices that are being deployed in your area are life-saving. TCLS has become a critical care transport ambulance. They not only provide this advanced care to those that call 911 but also to patients requiring critical care services as they are transferred to out of the area hospitals for higher levels of care. As we all know this is much needed in your area with low visibility and the inability of an aircraft to get in. I personally travel to the coast frequently and go through this area. I am reassured to know that if my family needed medical assistance for anything, TCLS would be there for us. Note from Kathy - Suzie has been training TCLS for many years. She comes, bringing lungs obtained from her local butcher, to provide airway management training for our volunteer fire departments and TCLS personnel at our annual EMS EXPO. She has been training TCLS medics on management of transport ventilators for ten years now! This scope of practice is so beneficial in getting very sick patients from Trinity to Shasta with their airway safe and protected.

Message from Carl Adams of Hayfork It was on May 1, 2019. I had collapsed for 7 minutes. I was gone. Whitney, off duty ambulance staff, was just around the corner at the tire shop. ... The ambulance was also right there, quick enough to save me, I know that. They worked together. I was defibrillated. I received early advanced life support care. Whitney stayed with me the whole time. He was great. They flew me out on an air ambulance, but our local ambulance stabilized me. I am alive and fully recovered because they were there, and they were all great. I hope you all will vote to keep this ambulance service alive. We need it.

Here is a Hayfork story, shared by a Hayfork family... When we woke up to our daughter, who was just 8 months old, having a complex febrile seizure it was like a nightmare. Living in our rural area is a blessing for our family but having four children and knowing at best your closest emergency room is forty-five minutes away is one of my biggest fears as a mother. ... That night there was nothing we could do to help our daughter, having Trinity County Life Support saved her life. They were able to provide the medical care that she needed that moment, they were able to stop the seizure that had lasted over 10 minutes and showed no sign of stopping on its own. We had no one else around who could help for miles and miles. After that first experience, we found out that our daughter could have another seizure whenever she ran a fever. Sure enough 7 months later we woke up to another seizure. TCLS not only showed up again quickly but remembered our daughter and her history and had a helicopter on its way. They were compassionate, vital, and efficient while helping our little girl. Knowing that we could rely on their help is so critical. While we hope that we won’t need to make any more 1:00 am nightmare calls to Trinity County Life support, we know we could need to at any time and I cannot imagine not having that as an option. It would be absolutely devastating to my family and to our community! Thank you to everyone who came to our rescue those nights! EMTs, Paramedics, Volunteer Fire, Cal-Fire, TCSO, and anyone else who helped in some way. And know our family will support Trinity County Life Support any way we possibly can! The Cavalli Family, Hayfork, California

Today, I want to share a letter from Gene Benassini, who our crews took care of last October. The thing is, Gene received a medication, new to TCLS this year, that is life-saving. Paramedics have used the med, TXA, multiple times this year, to extend a patient's chances of reaching a trauma surgeon and surviving. This scope of practice is critical to serving you in this rural area. So many things that you just are not aware of that are at risk. Save them with a YES YES ...on H and I Gene Benassini, Douglas City I’ve been racing jeeps and ATVs for years. Last October I flipped an ATV, flew down an embankment, and it landed on top of me. I was knocked out. I don’t remember too much. Trinity County Life Support treated me on the way to the Douglas City Firehouse landing zone where I long ago was the Volunteer Fire Department Chief. The crew did a lot with IVs, IV fluid and a medication called TXA, stabilizing my vital signs. I support Measures H and I 120%.

Douglas City Volunteer Fire Department supports Measures H & I. We are a highly dedicated group of First Responders who has worked closely with Trinity County Life Support for many years. TCLS is there whenever called. They are not too tired to get out of bed in the middle of the night to administer care to a person having a heart attack or stroke. They go long hours sometimes without a break because the calls for medical attention keep coming. Without TCLS, response time ...will be quite different. Measure H and Measure I will prevent cuts or elimination of local life support ambulance service including two 24/7 ambulances for emergencies. Trinity County Life Support maintains four ambulances in readiness, two staffed 24/7. One each is stationed in Weaverville and Hayfork. Passing these two ballot measures will prevent our communities from losing this lifesaving, essential emergency service. If we lose this service, help will be a long way off. This affects us all, patients and first responders. A patient that needs advanced life support sooner rather than later may have a poor outcome that could have been otherwise. TCLS is a professional and dedicated ambulance service that we need to keep. Please join Trinity County Volunteer Fire Departments in voting YES on Measures H & I. For $45 a year we can keep our Ambulance service. We need to save Trinity County Life Support. You need them! Sincerely, Douglas City Fire Department: John Holland, Chief Marty Mather, Assistant Fire Chief Ted Pierce, Captain Caitlan Mather, Safety Officer Mary Franke, Chief Medical Officer Tim Osborne, Fire Fighter Yancey Woodard, Fire Fighter

Supervisor-Elect Jill Cox - YES YES on H and I For the past 27 years, Trinity County has been privileged with a locally staffed ambulance service: Trinity County Life Support. Due to growing financial constraints, however, the certainty of their ongoing service in the county is in grave danger. While the ever-changing environment of healthcare is an increasingly daunting path to navigate, assuming that the financial issues faced by our local ambulance service will somehow...Continue reading

Please check out this great letter from Dr. Chad Smith. When I received and read it, I felt so grateful that someone fully understands what we are up against at TCLS. Thank you Dr. Smith, we needed it! Chad Smith, Emergency Room Physician Trinity Hospital Here are my thoughts on Measures H and I.... I started working at the hospital in 2014 and moved here permanently a year later. It was my impression at the time and even more so currently, that the EMS units are the most valuable component in Trinity County’s emergency healthcare delivery. As an ER doc, I see the immediate treatment interventions of EMS that cannot be provided by any other entity. Airway control, administration of oxygen or glucose, compression of hemorrhage, fluid resuscitation, recognition and initial treatment of cardiac and neurologic catastrophes- these are the first few that come to mind. I have watched you perform while understaffed and under-funded for several years now, and despite that we have a decent crew of competent EMS providers. I am very concerned about these measures not passing as many people do not realize how unsafe it is to run this large county with 2 ambulances, let alone when one or both are engaged in transport. This also means paying for talent to stay in the area, not just bodies filling a seat. It's a small price to pay to have a medic at your door quickly treating what would otherwise be in their absence a bad outcome. Thank you for your years of compassionate care in the community. I hope people do the right thing for their families and their neighbors and vote this through. -chad

VOTE YES YES ON MEASURES H & I...an information letter sent out today to our local Trinity County Life Support Members Ground and Alliance.. Drop a Comment

We are open for Classes Call to save your spot Details Below

Today is #NationalPetFireSafetyDay. See image below for some tips to better prepare you and your pet in the event of a fire. @CALFIRESHU Visit this link to learn more: https://www.readyforwildfire.org//go-ev/animal-evacuation/

Statement from Public Health Nursing Director Marcie Cudziol regarding increased testing and contact tracing in Trinity County.

Trinity County News Conference 5-12-20

Trinity County Coronavirus (COVID-19) Press Release 5-12-2020 https://www.trinitycounty.org//Trinity_County_Press_Releas

Starting today, CalFresh recipients can use their Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards to make online food purchases through Amazon and Walmart, while staying home and staying safe during #COVID19. Read news release: https://bit.ly/2KFJV03 #CalFreshFood #ChooseCalFresh

California has made progress bending the curve but the risk of #COVID19 is still very real. Today, Governor Gavin Newsom announced details on how CA plans to modify the Stay-At-Home order in the future. These modifications are based on science, health & data & will happen in 4 stages:

Trinty County Public Health COVID-19 (Coronavirus) Public Service Announcement 4-28-2020 https://www.trinitycounty.org/node/1838

Trinity County Coronavirus (COVID-19) Press Release 4-24-2020 https://youtu.be/lSIjSz--kWw

PSA regarding COVID-19 Scams from U.S. Postal Inspection Service https://youtu.be/glx-EBZbyNQ

How to Speak with Your Children About Coronavirus https://youtu.be/kwK3zhh321A

Tips from Trinity County Environmental Health on shopping safely!

Trinity County Health Officer Advisory and Order 3.25.20 https://www.trinitycounty.org//Health_Officer_order_final_

Call to get signed up to take class. This class always fills up.