Since 1970 the secondary school kids in Darien, Connecticut, have run 'Boy Scout Explorer Post 53', with three 24 hour ambulances for the 20,000 population. The squad has about 30 boys and 30 girls, and accepts only about one out ten of those who apply to join. The students work in the radio room from age 14, and at 15 they are promoted to rider on the ambulance. During these first two years, the student is also putting in 150 hours of training to become an Emergency Medical Technician, who can drive the ambulance and perform a variety of lifesaving techniques, from applying splints to broken bones to handling severe wounds and burns.
The service handles about a thousand calls a year, referred to them by the Darien Police Department. An adult supervisor is always on hand, but the teenagers take charge.
'I've been on calls where it looked like we had lost the victim,' said Jamie Green, 17. 'On one occasion an older man had stopped breathing and we couldn't detect a pulse. We started CPR immediately and within two minutes, we had him breathing on his own. Knowing you actually saved a life is the greatest satisfaction in the world.'
When not at headquarters, the students wear pagers that go off in an emergency, calling them from their homes at night or out of class during the day. The student driver on duty drives the ambulance wherever he goes so that he can respond immeditely and meet up with the others at the accident.
The group's $120,000 annual budget comes from donations. The service is praised by the medical professionals. Dr Dorothy Turnbull, Stamford Hospital's director of emergency services says: 'They're as good as any professional operation in the state.'
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