"All the best stories are but one story in reality - the story of escape. It is the only thing which interests us all and at all times, how to escape."
-A. C. Benson
According to my circle of resident friends in other programs and other specialties, I hands-down won the dubious distinction of having the craziest "guess what they made us do during intern orientation" story. I consider this to be a dubious distinction because winning a one-upmanship contest is not always a good thing. In this case, I can safely say that winning this distinction means that I now know what being waterboarded feels like. It doesn't feel very good.
UMass's EM program is one of a handful of EM programs in the entire country that require residents to fly on the emergency transport helicopter as flight physicians. Part of our preparation for this role entails a day of dunker training. This is a water evacuation course that teaches us what to do should the helicopter ever crash in open water.
Let me say that the water evacuation training was terrifying. You're strapped into a helicopter fuselage, fully dressed in a flight suit and helmet. They suspend you over a pool of cold water, drop you in, and turn it upside down, in the dark. While you're upside down under water, completely disoriented, you have to open the emergency window exit, get yourself out of the harness, and swim out. You get water up your nose; it's tremendously uncomfortable, and I wound up swallowing a bunch of water once I got myself right side up again. (They flip you over because that's usually what happens when a helicopter crashes into water, and plus the pilots are trained to try to invert us on purpose so that we won't get cut to ribbons by the rotor blades if we do manage to make it out alive.).
After the first time, I came up sputtering but relieved to be alive and done with the exercise. That was when I found out that we had to egress the fuselage a total of four times, not counting the previous four times that I had already done it in the training chair. Of course, I balked at this, and the trainers proceeded to talk me into doing the rest of the exercises. (Insert bad German accent here: They haff vays of making you not balk!) The end result of this was that I got motion sick--there's a reason why I avoid amusement park rides that turn you upside down. All in all, it was a thoroughly unpleasant experience.
I have to say on my behalf though that I didn't ever panic, and I was able to extricate myself and swim to the surface without assistance all four times. I feel like I would be able to get myself out of a downed helicopter for real if I ever had to, and fortunately if it were for real, I'd only have to do it once, not four times in a row.
What?????????????????? WOW WOW WOW
ReplyDeleteSo what happens if a person joins their EM program and is not a swimmer? Do they still have to partake in such exercise?
ReplyDeleteYes, everyone does it. There have been residents who don't know how to swim, and I'm sure it is even less pleasant of an experience for them than it was for me. But fortunately, you don't really have to swim in order to be able to do this exercise so much as get yourself out of the fuselage, and then kick up to the surface.
ReplyDeleteIf you have a legitimate medical reason that precludes you from being dropped upside down would they have a huge problem with this?
ReplyDeleteNo, they won't. In fact, Survival Systems has you fill out a health questionnaire, and if you don't meet their requirements, they won't allow you to participate in the dunker training part. You can still attend the classroom session and participate in some of the other exercises.
ReplyDelete