As part of our mission to develop a rescue community, we are asking teams to share their rescue experiences with the blog group. This month, Motiva in Convent, LA relates an interesting real-rescue their team faced.

This Motiva team has been working together for 20 years! They practice quarterly to keep their skills sharp, and have had to use their skills in action. Like so many of our guys, they find the Petzl ID to be a very useful and user friendly piece of equipment.

Here’s the story the Motiva team shared.

While cleaning in the engine room of a tug, a contractor had fallen off a grating onto the engine of the tug boat. Convent’s ERT reported to the dock, donned life vests and made their way into the engine room where they got a briefing from the tug captain and started assessing the patient. The patient was complaining of shoulder, leg, and back injuries.

Once the initial medical assessment was completed, a Sked stretcher and backboard were requested because of the narrow stairway leading to the engine room. A haul team was positioned on the dock using a crane as a high point. Crane was “locked & tagged out” once put into position. A main line and tag lines were lowered onto the barge and a 4:1 hauling system was set-up on the dock (multiple directionals were used because of the dock configuration).

A secondary medical evaluation was performed, and the patient was packaged in the Sked. The patient was then brought up from the engine room. Once on the deck, two safety lines (1head/1feet) were placed on the patient because he had to be slid along the handrail to be removed from the tug.

Once on the barge, the patient was connected to the main line and hauled up to the dock. From this point, medical care was transferred to Acadian Ambulance.

Special thanks to James Louque, HTU-2 Operations, V.E.R.T. Captain, C-Shift at Motiva’s Convent Refinery for taking the time to share their experience.


The Rescue Team at Motiva-Convent Kneeling: Brady Edmonston, Derres Gautreaux, James Louque 2nd row: Ryan Roussel, Ted Roussel, John Guidry, Brian Crochet Back row: Todd Devare, Jesser Louque, Edward Turner, Randy Rogers

The rescue team from the BP deep water oil platform Nakika trained last week at the Roco Training Center in Baton Rouge. Pictured below is the team with Roco Instructors Russ Kellar and Keith Pridgen and Roco President/CEO Kay Goodwyn. The Nakika is only 8 miles from the Deepwater Horizon, the site of the recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

 

38 students representing 11 companies from around the United States participated in Roco’s Rescue I Plus class last week in Baton Rouge.

Here’s a class photo with our six instructors (from left to right) Bobby Kauer, Robert “Soup” Campbell, Mike Adams, Dwaynne Ardeneaux, Troy Gardner and Terry Addison. Also pictured is Equipment Manager Lisha Ezell (left) and Kay Goodwyn President/CEO of Roco (center). To date this was the largest class Roco has put on at our training center.

Despite the humidity, the Lion Oil team was happy to accommodate a photofinish that includes Roco's Chief Instructor/Director of Training,Dennis O'Connell (Top Left) and Roco's President, Kay Goodwyn (Center). What a great job the Lion Oil team continues to do!

Since 1989, Dennis O’Connell has been a technical rescue consultant and professional instructor for Roco. In 2002, he joined the company full-time and is now the Director of Training and a Chief Instructor.

As Director of Training, O’Connell heads up Roco’s technical rescue programs and is responsible for curriculum development, instructor training and much more. As a Chief Instructor, he teaches Confined Space, High Angle, Trench, Structural Collapse, and Instructor Development courses. “Training-the-trainer” is one of the many skills O’Connell cultivated during his 20-year tenure with the New York Police Department (NYPD).

Sgt. O’Connell received 14 commendations and citations as a career officer and was selected to serve on the NYPD Emergency Services Unit (ESU) for 17 years. Besides responding to over 100,000 assignments each year, this elite group served as a Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) unit for America’s iconic city–responding to high-risk situations and providing rescue operations for transportation accidents, building collapses, hazardous materials incidents, water rescue, confined space and high-angle incidents, helicopter operations (high-rise Medevac), and disorder control.

As a member of ESU, he was extensively involved in rescue and recovery efforts at the World Trade Center from Day One. As a hand-selected member of FEMA’s New York Task Force #1, Sgt. O’Connell responded to major disasters in Oklahoma City, Atlanta, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic. With his broad teaching experience and expertise in real-world rescue, O’Connell is a man others want to learn from.

His inspiration for becoming a rescue professional?
As a young man, O’Connell was involved in an automobile crash with fatal injuries to one of his best friends. At that moment, he vowed to learn the proper techniques of lifesaving, rescue, and emergency response. Mission accomplished.

His best advice for the novice?
Know your equipment like the back of your hand… literally. You have to protect yourself before you can help others.

What does he do for fun?
Almost anything that presents a challenge! Here we see him sporting ‘Cajun Reeboks’ for a little recreational trip down the bayou. Only the best equipment for the job will do for Dennis!