When a Hoboken woman was suffering from acute abdominal pain on May 23, a group of Hoboken High School students sprang into action.
They already had been trained as Emergency Medical Technicians as part of Hoboken High School’s year-old Emergency Response Team. But May 23 was the first time they responded to a 911 call using their own ambulance.
The team is called to action when the Hoboken Ambulance Corps can use extra help. Since May 23, the group has responded to eight emergencies, including a small apartment fire on Second and Jackson streets on Tuesday. The students assisted civilians and a firefighter at the scene who were suffering from smoke inhalation.
Senior Joshua Otero, 18, said he remembered vividly how he felt the first time a call came in for the team.
“I’d been waiting to ride for a long time. There was a lot of adrenaline. A lot of thoughts were running through my mind,” he said.
After arriving on the scene, Otero remembered feeling more at ease.
“Everything was sort of textbook from that point on,” he said. “It all came back to me. I knew exactly what to do.”
The first and only Hoboken High School is the first school in the state to have its own ERT program and fully operational ambulance.
The ambulance was donated in the spring of 2005 by the town of Blairstown and was recently insured under the same policy held by the Hoboken Volunteer Ambulance Corps.
“We have to prove ourselves to the city right now,” said Joe Miele, the district’s coordinator of service learning and co-founder of the ERT program. “So far, it’s been all positive feedback, from the police to the Fire Department to the other emergency services.”
Miele, along with Hoboken Police Captain Edward Garcia and Emergency Response Coordinator Melanie Alberto-Kolmer, have accompanied the students on emergency calls as seasoned EMTs.
Garcia said that the goal of the response team is to get young people involved in Emergency Medical Services (EMS) at an early age.
“You don’t know how important it is to have an ambulance in the community until you call and there isn’t one,” Garcia said.
Angela Montero, 17, is a member of the response team who became an emergency medical technician through the course.
“It was scary at first. I was nervous,” said Montero about the fire that occurred last Tuesday. “I really didn’t know what was going on when I got there, but once I started, it all just clicked.”
Students’ reactions Otero plans to build upon what he learned at the ERT program, where he earned his EMT certification, and eventually become a paramedic. In the fall, Otero will attend a program offered by the New Jersey Medical Center through Hudson County’s Community College.
Another senior who earned her EMT certification through the ERT program is 17-year-old Angela Almonte.
“I was shocked and nervous when I heard the call,” said Almonte, who along with Miele and Garcia, was among the first team members to respond to Tuesday’s fire.
Almonte will be attending St. Peter’s College this September where she hopes to pursue a career in teaching. She will not be entering the medical field, but she plans to assist the ERT next year.
Two teens started it In the hours following the disasters on Sept. 11, former Hoboken High School students Helen Yao and Michele Martinovich volunteered at the emergency triage set up at the city’s PATH station. They were each given Youth Star of Life awards from the state’s Department of Health for their civic-minded actions.
Along with Miele, the teens envisioned a program to ensure that students and staff at Hoboken High would be ready if a medical emergency surfaced in or around the city.
The course curriculum includes, but is not limited to, instruction on: CPR, emergency child birth, controlling bleeding, broken bones, poison, and strokes and heart attacks.
When students complete the program they receive CPR proficiency and First Response Certification from the American Red Cross.
In addition to their training, each student has assisted in the trauma unit in the ER at the Jersey City Medical Center over the school year. The students also traveled to Newark to observe five autopsies at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.
“Kids are training to save lives, to be there when others need them. It’s a lifelong experience that stays with them forever,” said Miele, summing up the program’s impact.
Although the ERT is prepared to respond to large-scale emergencies at any time, the team currently operates from Monday through Friday at 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The program will end in June and begin again in September with an entirely new set of students.
Currently, nine juniors have expressed an interest in joining the ERT in their senior year and hope to become EMT certified.
Michael Mullins can be reached at mmullins@hudsonreporter.com