VOA标准英语2009-Washington DC Firefighters Often on Front Li

Fire Dept. shoulders costs in neighborhoods lacking doctors and medical clinics

Chris Simkins | Washington, DC 20 November 2009

 
In large cities like Washington, to ensure the fastest response to medical calls, fire departments dispatch¹ trucks carrying a paramedic with the firefighters

"To be good at this job you have to be able to handle every situation."

Keeping health care costs under control is a goal of reforms being debated in the U.S. Congress.  One hidden cost is the burden to fire departments that find themselves providing expensive primary medical care for people who have no other place to turn.  For the poor and elderly in one neighborhood of the U.S. capital, firefighters are the first on the scene to treat people who otherwise might not have easy access to doctors or clinics.  

A radio dispatcher² calls Engine Company 10 into action.

Washington, D.C. firefighter and paramedic Jon Botwin is on the ready.

"To be good at this job you have to be able to handle every situation," he explains.

At the scene, Botwin isn't fighting a fire but helping³ people who need medical care.

"You are the frontlines of every aspect of health care and people-care," he said, "We do it all."

Firefighters with Engine Company 10 are trained emergency medical technicians, and they're increasingly being called on to also be primary care providers. The firefighters arrive on the scene quickly and offer medical help until an ambulance arrives minutes later.

In large cities like Washington, to ensure the fastest response to medical calls, fire departments dispatch trucks carrying a paramedic with the firefighters.

Engine Company 10 is located in Trinidad, a neighborhood plagued by poverty and crime.  Many of its residents don't have health insurance, and few doctors are available.  When people need medical attention they phone the emergency number, 911.

It's another emergency response call for the crew from Engine Company 10.  This is one of the busiest fire stations in the country.  Eighty percent of those calls were for medical emergencies.

Thirty-year-old firefighter Botwin responds to a report of a 12 year old combative⁴ patient. Botwin uses his counseling⁵ skills to help a girl who has run away from home.

Within the next hour, Botwin treats a patient for an asthma⁶ attack and arranges transportation to the hospital emergency room for someone complaining of chest and stomach pains. Botwin sees many of the same people again and again. 

"An ER [Emergency Room in a hospital] is not a primary care facility, that is not a doctor. But if you don't have to pay for the extra costs of going to an ER, then what do you care what it really costs?  And those people are taxing and troubling the health care system," Botwin said.

As day turns to night, Engine Company 10 responds to more medical calls. Firefighter and paramedic Kianna Loften is going to help an elderly woman with an upset stomach. Ten other firefighters and paramedics responded to this call.  Loften tries to educate patients on their treatment options.
 
It can cost about $3,000 to run a truck and four firefighters to medical emergencies in a 24 hour period. The expense has led some to question the cost effectiveness of sending fire trucks to medical calls.

Sergeant⁷ Jonathan Johnson, a 9 year veteran of the fire department, says medical calls are putting a burden on the system. "It is kind of sad and it overwhelms⁸ the system at times," he said.

Washington D.C.'s Fire Department is trying to identify people who abuse the emergency response system and find other ways to get them health check-ups and the proper medication.  Members of Engine Company 10 hope the plan can take hold so they won't be called on so often to serve as primary health care providers.

1 dispatch   

vt.派遣；n.急件，快信，新闻报道，派遣

参考例句：

• We must ask someone to carry a dispatch from Rome to London.我们得派人把急件由罗马送往伦敦。
• I'll advise you of the dispatch of the goods.我会通知你们货物的发运情况。

2 dispatcher   

n.调度器

参考例句：

• The dispatcher then returns the completed request to the appropriate user process.这时调度器就可以将处理完成的请求返回给相应的用户。

3 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

4 combative   

adj.好战的；好斗的

参考例句：

• Mr. Obama has recently adopted a more combative tone.奥巴马总统近来采取了一种更有战斗性的语调。
• She believes that women are at least as combative as are.她相信女性至少和男性一样好斗。

5 counseling   

n.咨询服务

参考例句：

• A multimillionaire media magnate has shocked his employees with his candor by telling them all that he's putting his business affairs on hold to enter an alcoholism-counseling program. 一位身份数百万的媒体大亨，坦诚地告诉他全体员工他将暂时搁置他的事业以便参加戒酒班，令员工大为惊愕。
• She will need medical help and counseling to overcome the tragedy. 她将需要医疗帮助和心理咨询来平复这场悲剧。

6 asthma   

n.气喘病，哮喘病

参考例句：

• I think he's having an asthma attack.我想他现在是哮喘病发作了。
• Its presence in allergic asthma is well known.它在过敏性气喘中的存在是大家很熟悉的。

7 sergeant   

n.警官，中士

参考例句：

• His elder brother is a sergeant.他哥哥是个警官。
• How many stripes are there on the sleeve of a sergeant?陆军中士的袖子上有多少条纹？

8 overwhelms   

v.淹没( overwhelm的第三人称单数 )；压倒；覆盖；压垮

参考例句：

• Your kindness quite overwhelms me. 你的好意使我感激难言。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Viscosity overwhelms the smallest eddies and converts their energy into heat. 粘性制服了最小的旋涡而将其能量转换为热。 来自辞典例句