The Salisbury Volunteer Ambulance Service

SALISBURY — The Salisbury Volunteer Ambulance Service (SVAS) is an all-volunteer organization whose members are on call 24 hours-a-day, seven days-a-week to respond to emergencies in the community. 

SVAS responded to 34 calls in the month of June. These included: eight dispatches for a fall; six for a sick person; six fire alarms (due a malfunctioning unit at a local school); five motor vehicle accidents; three for pain; three refusals and one cardiac arrest.

Two calls resulted in a LifeStar helicopter being called.

There were no search and rescues.

Three of the dispatches involved residents of Noble Horizons.

The number of calls for the month was average, but the numbers of dispatches per day was higher than normal; there were two days in which duty crews responded four times, one day they were dispatched three times and six days when crews went out twice.

The cardiac arrest call turned out to be something quite different. On arrival of the first responders, they found a patient lying face down in the grass. The victim was found unresponsive and subsequently ruled a suicide. (See story in The Lakeville Journal, June 17, 2010, at tcextra.com.)

SVAS held its first membership drive barbecue on June 4, and nine Salisbury residents came for a tour of headquarters. At least one interested resident signed up to be a driver.

This monthly column by Lakeville Journal copy editor and ambulance squad volunteer Tara Kelly is an update on EMS activities.

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