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Rural Ambulance Challenges

By Corinne Rose
June 18, 2010 Updated Jul 24, 2007 at 5:15 PM EST

(Fort Wayne, IN) --The overwhelming loss of three medics in that fiery Antwerp crash got us wondering what challenges other rural ambulance crews face on the job.

Lieutenant Jason Mueller has been an emergency medical technician, or EMT, with the Huntertown Fire Department for about six years.

And he says the challenges of driving an ambulance for a rural community can be very real.

In the winter, there's ice and snow... in the summer, high grass or corn crops.

"You have to be real aware of what your surroundings are because there are a lot of hills, hidden intersections, and so visibility is down. So when you go to pass somebody, if they don't pullover, you've got to be real aware of what's ahead of you," Mueller says.

Mueller says serving on a department about the same size as Antwerp's makes it so he can really relate and understand what a huge loss that is for them over there in Ohio.

"On a smaller department like that, that's a big loss. Because you have so many guys -- three or four guys -- that have gone through training and experience and time on the department. And they just lost all that. So now they're gonna have to replace those guys with people with not so much... that's never had the experience before," Mueller says.

And he says the entire EMS community is feeling the emotional loss in Antwerp, as well.

"You become good friends, like you said, like a family. When you lose three or four of your members like that, it's a huge loss emotionally, physically. I've never had to deal with anything like that, but I can only imagine what the guys in Antwerp are going through," he says.



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