DeKalb County Emergency Medical Technicians Marie Tupin and Jamie Parsley were nominated and won the 2017 Region IV Upper Cumberland EMS Director’s Association EMT and Paramedic of the Year Awards Friday.
Tupin received a 2017 "Paramedic of the Year" award and Parsley was honored as "EMT of the Year."
“I would like to congratulate these outstanding and dedicated EMTs,” said Hoyt Hale, DeKalb County EMS director. “They show exemplifying qualities daily as well as compassion for their patients.”
The two were nominated for their daily diligence but also for a call on July 30, 2017, received at 1:55 p.m. reporting a two-car accident with injuries on Nashville Highway in DeKalb County.
Responding to a possible entrapment call where the caller was unsure if the male patient was breathing, with 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. The 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 these 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 is 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.”