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Fairfield County Wins Big at EMS Games

Fairfield County Emergency Medical Services says they have some of the best paramedics in the world and they've been able to prove it, taking home some major hardware at the Excellence in EMS JEMS Games.

Fairfield County, SC (WLTX) - Fairfield County EMS recently brought back some major hardware.

"It makes me proud that we have some of the best paramedics in the world," Mike Tanner said.

Tanner is the Director of Fairfield County EMS. Three paramedics within his department recently took home a top prize at the JEMS Excellence in EMS Games in Charlotte beating over 50 teams from around the world in the Hands On Experience Scenario Challenge.

"One was cardiac arrest, the other was narcotics overdose and the other was a no transport," Anna Rhodes said.

Rhodes is Deputy Director and took the lead, training two of her coworkers, Jennifer Fitch and Nicole Simonson, who ultimately competed in the challenge.

"[It] just made me so proud to see them go above and beyond everybody else," said Rhodes.

Tanner said major investments like a fully automated mannequin named Hal helped set them apart.

"It's breathing breathe sounds, pulses. It gives them the cutting-edge technology to help them out in the field," he said.

This past weekend both Tanner and Rhodes took home the Lowcountry Regional EMS Council Award for going above and beyond during duty.

"We realized we had a serious situation on our hands. We hand power lines down on this truck and we could visibly see the occupant that was halfway in and out of the truck and we could tell that he was deteriorating, so we had to act quickly, but we used calculated risk that we could get in and get him out and get him some real fast treatment that would save his life," Tanner said.

And while they agreed that the awards are nice, both Rhodes and Tanner said that everything they do involves a team effort and is just a part of the job.

"That makes our day, to be able to help somebody tremendously like that," he said.

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