For the last fifteen years, Sean Hill, Operations Manager with Linn County Ambulance District, has been one of those people.

Prior to 1993, Sean’s home town, Marceline, Missouri, (Linn County) did not have a first responder program.  With just one ambulance base in the county, Linn County officials took note of this sobering fact and decided in 1993 to create the program. 

Having been with the Marceline Fire Department since 1988, Sean was chosen to direct the formation of the much need system and was trained for the position at the Moberly Area Community College.  Since those days the first responder program in Linn County has been a strong effective system that has made the difference between life and death for many area residents.

 

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“It’s quite a feeling to see the faces of those I have helped in the past, when I’m out and about in the community,” says Sean.  “Ours is a rural community but not so small that everybody knows everybody. At times I’ve seen half a dozen faces I recognize just shopping at the store.  I’m not so good with names, but I always remember their faces. I’m proud to know I was able to help get them back to normal.”

In 1998, Sean became a licensed paramedic, getting his degree from Hannibal LaGrange.  In 2001, he was promoted to operations manager of Linn County Ambulance District which is staffed with 14 full-time and 12 part-time staff members.

These days progress has a whole new meaning for Sean and his colleagues.  Since the development of the first responder program in 1993, all communities in the region have followed suit.

Now Sean works on enhancing EMS services for a 16-county region, known as Region B.  He represents the EMS community on a homeland security steering committee created by Governor Matt Blunt.  The committee decides how to spend federal grant dollars on varying regional needs.  For example, recently the committee decided to add a Mass Casualty Incident (MCI) trailer to Region B, bringing the total to 4 MCI trailers for the 16-county region.  The trailers carry needed equipment and materials to deal with various types of mass casualty ordeals.

Sean is also involved with the State Advisory Council and was also invited by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) to participate in a significant plan to improve responses to stroke and heart attack patients on a statewide level.  The program is called the Time Critical Diagnosis Task Force.

“I’m really honored to be on this task force,” says Sean.  “The purpose is to create a networked system of care for stroke and heart patients, very much like the system we’re all familiar with for trauma patients.”

“It’s a ground-level opportunity for me to be a part of – and ten years from now when we all take it for granted, it will be really neat to say I was a part of it.”

Speaking of the trauma system, Sean recently worked with LifeFlight Eagle as well as Marceline Fire and local police to save a trauma patient who wouldn’t have had a chance for survival before 1993.

On February 10, 2008, a young man sustained severe head trauma when a tree came down on him while doing some clearing.  Though Sean was off duty that day, he did arrive on the scene as a Marceline Fire Department first responder.

With Linn County Ambulance District on the scene as well, the decision was made to call LifeFlight Eagle to transport the patient.  The outlook was grim, but the trauma system Sean helped to build coordinated itself flawlessly.

LifeFlight Eagle’s arrival on the scene was particularly fast and the ground units had the patient sedated, intubated and completely packaged upon our arrival, making our ground time very short.

Though neurologists later gave the comatose patient a very poor prognosis and not much hope, he did pull through and is now walking and talking as he recovers at a Kansas City hospital.

“The system worked,” says Sean.  “It did just what it was supposed to do for that young man.  And now I look forward to the day when I unexpectedly run into him while shopping at the store.”

Sean your passion for EMS progress is helping to save lives!  Thank you for all you do for the residents of Linn County and Region B!