Frederick police, emergency medical personnel ready for 2017 running festival
By Jeremy Arias, Frederick News Post, May 1, 2017
Frederick MD -- The rescue personnel assigned to cover the Frederick Running Festival this year will be riding in style thanks to the continued donations of a dedicated volunteer paramedic.
Each year the county’s Division of Fire and Rescue Services sends out two-person teams of bicycle-mounted medics — one with basic first aid supplies such as bandages, the other stocked with advanced equipment including portable defibrillators — to supplement the aid stations and ATVs spread throughout the 13.1-mile half marathon course.
Jon H. Brundage, a volunteer paramedic with the Independent Hose Co. in Frederick, decided to take action when he noticed the wear and tear on several of the bikes while working at one of the aid stations in 2015.
“I started inquiring ... and fell in with the idea that I could replace a couple” of the bikes, Brundage said. “We did some research and I talked to the guys about some different models and we eventually decided to go with some mountain-trail, urban-type models made by Smith & Wesson specifically for police, fire and EMS.”
Brundage bought four bicycles and brand-new aid bags before last year’s festival for about $4,600. Brundage donated two more bikes and bags earlier in 2017 ahead of this year’s festival, set to kick off at 6 p.m. Saturday with a Twilight 5K.
The new bikes were immediately effective at last year’s festival when a runner collapsed during the half marathon May 8, said Fire Medic II Matthew Burgan and Firefighter III David Ohler, who were among the four rescue personnel assigned to patrol the course that day.
Burgan and Ohler were in the final mile of the course when people started shouting nearby. Ohler, who was in the basic life support role, began chest compressions within a minute while Burgan radioed for backup and set up an automated external defibrillator from his advanced life support packs.
“We had shocked him three times before the transport units showed up, and he had a pulse by the time he went in the ambulance,” Ohler said.
While the man was taken to Frederick Memorial Hospital once more units arrived, both Ohler and Burgan credited the increased mobility and speed offered by the bikes with their rapid response.
“I attribute that 100 percent to the patient’s survival. ... You can’t do any better than having an AED and a trained provider less than 100 feet away,” Burgan said.
Even though the men happened to be nearby when the runner collapsed, the bicycles — which will be out again this year — are a necessity when it comes to spreading medical coverage around events with heavy foot traffic such as the running festival and the city’s Independence Day celebration.
“You don’t even have to worry about people getting out of your way. You can cut through alleys, things like that,” Ohler said of the bikes. “And even though it’s a 13.1-mile race, it’s wrapped around the city, so, with a bike, you can pretty much be anywhere on the route within a few minutes.”
City police will also be out in force for the running festival, which was expected to draw 1,500 runners for the Twilight 5K on Saturday and 5,000 runners for the half marathon the following day, said acting Lt. Michael Lee, commander of the department’s Special Operations Division.
Time off is usually limited during the festival by the Frederick Police Department. More than two-thirds of the department’s sworn officers were assigned to the festival in 2015.
Lee declined to discuss staffing numbers before this year’s festival but said he did not plan to reduce the normal number of officers assigned to the rest of the city in order to staff the event.
The festival detail “is going to be all officers who are not working on the night before the event and all officers who are not working on the actual day of the event,” Lee said.
The course will remain open for three hours and 16 minutes, according to the event’s website, but Lee said traffic could be affected for up to five hours after the race begins.
“There’s no street closures for the event. We’ll have intersections along the route staffed by officers,” Lee said. “There will still be delays, because obviously the runners will take priority whenever there are runners in those intersections, but traffic will still be able to get through.”
Regardless of when the final runner crosses the finish line, police and rescue workers will be on hand to ensure they remain safe.
Brundage said he plans to pitch in at one of the aid tents again this year, and Burgan will be out on a bicycle again to patrol the event for the fire service. While he is glad to have the equipment he needs to respond in an emergency, Burgan said he is looking forward to a quiet race this year.
“It’s pretty cool. It’s something different to do, and you get to get out and talk to a bunch of people,” Burgan said.