Local paramedic team takes
international gold Down Under

By Mary Hay Davis
The Alpine Sun

Above, James Marugg, Dannie Myers and Cory Brown represented San Diego Regional Cooperative Care Program at the international paramedics competition, bringing home the Gold. Below, paramedic teams from all over the world gathered to compete in Australia.

Gold medal winner and Alpine resident James Marugg.

     ALPINE — Three local San Diego county paramedics emerged victorious in an international competition that tested both their clinical skills as well as their teamwork.
     The trio; James Marugg from the San Miguel Consolidated Fire Protection District, Dannie Myers from American Medical Response, and Cory Brown of the Bonita-Sunnyside Fire Protection District; worked together to garner the top honors and take home the gold, representing the San Diego Regional Cooperative Care Program (RCCP).
     The competition is known as The Australian Simulation Challenge, and was held Sept. 26-28 as part of Australian College of Ambulance Professionals Asia Pacific Conference in Queensland, Australia.
     Seven teams competed including teams from New Zealand, Queensland, Hong Kong, British Columbia, The Northern Territories, and FDNY. The competitors faced a scenario of a police raid on a methamphetamine lab, with multiple victims all suffering varying degrees of injuries.
     While role-playing accounted for much of the scenario, what made the competition possible on a clinical level was that two of the “victims” were actually computerized medical mannequins. The mannequins, known as SimMan, were programmed to present with critical injuries and allowed the scenario to be as lifelike as possible.
     This was not the local team’s first brush with victory. They won a similar national competition in Baltimore, Md. back in March, which earned them the right to continue on and compete internationally.
     “There are teams that compete at these competitions professionally and spend much of their time during the year training together just for these events,” said James Marugg, of Alpine. “But for our team, Dannie and Cory only met for the first time on the floor of the competition in Baltimore. We decided that instead of worrying about winning, we’d just pretend it was a regular call and get through it.”
     In fact, the team’s original goal was to just make it through the preliminaries in Baltimore. They were so certain they would not make it to the final competition that they originally planned a side trip to see Washington, D.C. on the night of the competition finals. Those plans were quickly set aside when the three were announced as finalists.
     A big difference between the national competition and the international one was adjusting to new protocol and standards. In Baltimore, all participants used standardized medicines and procedures found throughout North America. But in Australia, all of the competitors were required to abide by Australian protocol, which included using medicines that the FDA does not allow in the United States, but that are routinely used in Australia.
     Another obstacle the team had to overcome was the equipment and medical devices that were literally foreign to them.
     “We had to use a German cardiac monitor that we had only gotten very brief instruction on, so we had to adapt to that,” Marugg said.
     And while these professionals are used to working under pressure, it was quite another thing to do it in front of an audience that filled an entire conference hall.
     “We were in an arena with 200 of our closest strangers and I couldn’t get the cardiac monitor to charge,” Marugg said. “I finally remembered how to get it working and just proceeded along with the scenario.”
     The recognition for the enormity of these paramedics’ accomplishment is gaining momentum. The three have been honored by State Senator Denise Ducheney on the floor of the State Legislature and locally, they are scheduled to receive a proclamation from the County Board of Supervisors this week. There is hope that Governor Schwarzenegger and even President Bush might get on the bandwagon, as well.
     When asked if he’d like his two teenage sons to follow in his footsteps, Marugg answered yes. “This is a very hands on profession where you get to help people and truly make a difference. I’d be happy if they chose that path in life.”
     Given that Marugg has earned national and worldwide recognition for being among the best in his field, it seems his boys might have some very big boots to fill one day.

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