In urgent medical emergencies, the high school is thankful for the heroes located around who come to the rescue.
All Northview schools are recognized as MiHeart Safe Schools, which means the Medical Emergency Response Team(MERT) is trained and CPR/AED/FA certified, preparing them for any personal health situation a student may experience while at school.
The high school MERT team consists of the familiar faces of teachers, office staff, and others who have taken on the responsibility of joining the response team. These individuals are Brent Dickerson, Sara Whipple, Kristina Knuffer, Joylynn Kelly, Greg Wells, Tim Felix, Jim Haveman, Pat Marsman, John Wojciakowski, Deputy Allen, Derek Brooks, David Chana, Stephanie Knaus, Anna Reynolds, Sarah Snyder, Mark Spetoskey, Marie DeRegnaucourt, Brian Bollone and Nikki Mulheisen.
Biology teacher and original MERT team member, John Wojciakowski, has helped grow the resource into what it is today.
“There’s obviously a need for it, 1200 students, there’s gonna be medical emergencies and initially, we wanted someone in each hallway that had CPR training and knew how to use the AEDs so I think that’s kind of what started everything,” Wojciajowski said.
When assessing emergencies, many different questions have to circulate depending on the situation, including the intensity of the incident.
“Do we call 911?” Wojciajowski said. “That decision has to be made, and also [whether or not to] contact parents too. It’s always better to be on the safe side, so if there’s ever a question of do you make that call- that’s your answer, you make that call.”
Science teacher and second-year member of the MERT team, Brian Bollone’s experience in volunteering at his local fire station, helps him to assess situations with ease.
“As a firefighter, we go to medical call switches 80-85% of all of our calls, and I’ve probably been to 30 medical calls to every one fire call,” Bollone said. “You treat everything differently, what’s the main situation then you work from there.”
The MERT team can assess situations efficiently and effectively through a memorable acronym.
“There is a common mnemonic for doing an initial assessment, ‘SAMPLE.’ The acronym stands for Symptoms, Allergies, Medications, Past history, Last oral intake, and Events prior to the emergency,” Bollone said. “This gives any of the MERT team a quick idea of what might be occurring.”
Not every job is directly medical, however, and has just as big of an impact without all the fancy tools. ASL teacher, and 3-year member of the MERT team, Marie DeRegnaucourt is often found aiding the situation with pencil and paper in hand.
“I’m generally a notetaker, so when I arrive on the scene I find the notes so that I can start taking down notes on the person’s condition,” DeRegnaucourt said. “There will be somebody that does their blood pressure, their O2 levels, their heart rate- any physical symptoms or what they are showing signs of- so it’s my job usually to write that down.”
It’s no surprise to her students when DeRegnaucourt has to race out of the classroom when hearing the customary report over the loudspeakers.
“I have already told my students beforehand that I’m on the MERT team, so they know that when I hear a MERT announcement, I have to run to the MERT location,” Deregnacourt said.
The high school is lucky to have such a hardworking team, as their presence brings peace of mind, knowing that experienced help is readily available. This allows everyone to focus more on learning and enjoying school activities without worrying about potential health risks, as well as a new addition of keeping the community informed through a mass email reassuring students and their families that a medical situation occurring in school that day was handled by our heroes.
