When students usually think about the Medical Emergency Response Team they associate it with partying.
“I guess I think about drunk kids being MERT’ed,” sophomore Joshua Kelley said. “Ones that pass out or get sick in the dorms.”
Although some students were better informed, the idea of alcohol seemed popular with most.
“[MERT members are] students with some medical background who may be able to help you if you’re sick, but should only be approached if you really need help because they’d have to report you,” senior Artem Kirshon said.
Any MERT member will tell you that taking care of drinking related incidents only comprises a small part of their work on campus.
“Although most people associate MERT with simply your typical drunk call, that’s really not at all the majority of our call volume,” MERT member and sophomore Allison Rusgo said. “We get all sorts of calls that are completely not alcohol related.”
By definition, MERT is a New York State, Department of Health, certified basic life support volunteer first response agency – which responds to calls all over campus.
Statistically, a third of all calls are alcohol-related events.
MERT deals with sports injuries, allergic reactions and breathing failure as well as the occasional fall a student may have while trying to navigate the icy campus during winter.
MERT is comprised of 171 active members ranging from undergraduate students to graduates and faculty.
“We serve any individual on the campus community 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” Crew Chief and Assistant Director of Training and sophomore Daniel Nassau said. “From 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. the campus is served by a full crew with full equipment consisting of one crew chief, a crew chief in training and two certified EMTs.”
After 8 a.m., crew chiefs are also on duty equipped with a beeper so they can react immediately when called upon for an emergency.
But what makes MERT different from the EMTs that drive up in an ambulance to give you an expensive ride to the hospital?
“We walk the fine line between helping students, understanding where they’re coming from as their peers and providing medical attention,” Assistant Director of Operations and senior Alexandria Cornwall said.
“MERT is a unique organization on campus because you help your peers,” Director of Operations and senior Josh Brown said. “We’re all from the same perspective, we all have stress from school, we know what you’re going through.”
As fellow students, they can easily relate to a student’s panic over being taken to the hospital when they have a midterm the next day and therefore are able to provide more compassionate care than the ambulance EMTs.
“Sometimes they just want people to say that ‘you’re gonna be okay,” Crew Chief and junior Andrew Soberman said.
On Oct. 29 MERT will hold its Mass Casualty Incident at the Sigma Chi Fraternity house.
An MCI is an event where MERT simulates a mass student emergency on campus. “Last year went really well, unfortunately we didn’t have as much participation as we would have wanted,” Nassau said.
Compared to last year’s 17 “patients,” over 40 people have signed up so far.
Students can play roles in the incident, such as “man with a missing arm.” Other mock situations will include “friends” of those trapped in the building harassing EMTs or trying to assist their injured friends. Nassau hopes that this year’s MCI will be more public.
“It’ll improve the skills of all of our EMTs and other people,” Nassau said. “It will give them a lot of experience.”
If you’re interested in participating, e-mail dnassau@mail.rochester.edu.
Woo can be reached at mwoo@campustimes.org.
