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Miami Dade College Pioneers Training Course to Save Police Officers’ Lives

Police medical training

Miami, June 27, 2011 - Those few minutes after a serious injury, before paramedics arrive, can mean the difference between life and death. Police officers, who constantly put themselves at risk to save other lives, know this all too well. Florida currently leads the nation with the highest number of officer fatalities in the line of duty.  

To address this critical problem, Miami Dade College’s (MDC) MedicalCenter Campus and the Miami-Dade Police Department (MDPD) have joined forces to launch Surviving the Golden Hour, the country’s first medical training course designed to prevent further deaths among officers.    

This intense 40-hour course will educate officers with necessary medical knowledge to sustain their lives, as well as other injured officers, until paramedics arrive. Some of the course is taught at MDPD’s training facility. The second half of training will take place at the Medical Center Campus’ state-of-the-art Simulation Lab, where officers will be placed in realistic, dangerous and extremely stressful scenarios. They will be required to conduct wound assessment and bleeding control; stabilize spinal injuries; treat a sucking chest wound; among other injuries, on human simulators. In addition, officers will be equipped with emergency trauma kits.

The first course is underway. Others will take place on a monthly basis until all county officers have gone through the training.  

 

For more information, please contact MDC School of Allied Health Sciences Dean Pete Gutierrez at 305-237-4445, or MDPD Training Bureau Officers Annette Basulto, abalvarez@mdpd.com, and Bianchi Gonzalez, bcgonzalez@mdpd.com. 

 

Media-only contacts:
Juan Mendieta, 305-237-7611, jmendiet@mdc.edu, MDC communications director
Tere Estorino, 305-237-3949, testorin@mdc.edu, MDC media relations director
Sue Arrowsmith, 305-237-3710, sue.arrowsmith@mdc.edu, media specialist
Tarnell Carroll, 305-237-3359, tcarroll@mdc.edu, media specialist
Alejandro Rios, 305-237-7482, arios1@mdc.edu


Miami Dade College is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges to award associate and baccalaureate degrees.
Contact the Commission on Colleges at 1866 Southern Lane, Decatur, Georgia 30033-4097 or call 404-679-4500 for questions about the accreditation of Miami Dade College.
Miami Dade College is an equal access/equal opportunity institution and does not discriminate on the basis of gender, race, color, marital status, age, religion, national origin,
disability, veteran’s status, sexual orientation, or genetic information. Contact the Office of Equal Opportunity Programs/ADA Coordinator, at 305.237.2577 for information.
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