As Jason Powell, team captain and coordinator of Grady Health’s EMS Bike Team, rode his mountain bike through Piedmont Park one weekend, he suddenly found himself stopped by a random stranger.
Powell, in the midst of working as a bike medic for a special event, shook hands with the gentleman, dispensing the typical pleasantries. Soon, however, the man explained that a couple of years earlier, he had gone into cardiac arrest while participating in the Peachtree Road Race. And it was the Grady EMS Bike Team that had saved his life.
“Then he told me he was going to run the Peachtree again,” Powell said. “And it was really touching from both an emotional and professional standpoint.”
Powell and his fellow bike team members have saddle bags full of these stories. The Grady EMS Bike Team provides emergency medical response in environments not accessible by an ambulance. From smaller street festivals and community 5K runs to more sprawling events including the Publix Marathon and the Atlanta Pride Festival, the team rolls into action and remains on call for the duration.
The team dates back to 2003 when the Atlanta Track Club, its major financial supporter, donated funds to help get things up and running. Funds were used to pay for team member training, buy equipment and other start-up needs. And the Grady EMS Bike Team made its debut that July by hitting the street for the Peachtree Road Race.
“The team really showed its potential by rapidly getting to an incident, applying an AED and saving a life,” Powell said. “That’s worth its wait in gold, and it helped prove there’s a need.”
Today, a total of 24 Grady paramedics and EMTs are assigned to the team. These handpicked participants are required to have EMT or paramedic certification. The ideal team medic should have at east two years of advanced life support experience in a 911 setting and one year of experience at Grady Health. The latter allows the medic to become familiar with Grady’s system and communications. And each member must complete training based on International Police/EMS Mountain Bike Association and Georgia bicycle traffic laws.
The Grady EMS Bike Team is hired to participate in an average of 25 events each year. The number of medics at each event depends on the size. Typically, a smaller venue requires four cyclists split into teams of two. Larger events call for medics to be individually posted throughout as a solo response unit for maximum coverage.
“A lot of times it’s one rescuer at the start of a situation instead of two or more,” said team medic Asher Morris. “It definitely requires good leadership and organizational skills, and the ability to prioritize and multi-task.”
On the day of a event, team participants gather at the Grady EMS headquarters on Memorial Drive in Atlanta. For an event like the Peachtree, this could mean preparing as early as 4:30 a.m. They currently have 16 Trek public safety model bicycles, which are designed for strenuous activity and can handle heavier loads. The team keeps 14 of its bikes packed and ready to go at any given time.
Each bike has two saddle bags, one on each side, and a bag on the bike’s rear rack. The contents include a defibrillator, oxygen, first aid and trauma supplies, IVs and fluids, first-line medications and more. It all weighs in at approximately 50 pounds.
“Riding a bike is one thing,” said team medic Gail Stallings. “Riding a bike that has 50 pounds of gear through a crowd is a whole different ballgame. When you join the team, there’s about a week and-a-half of training just learning how to maneuver the bikes.”
Once the bikes are fully packed, and the medics have checked to make sure the chains, brakes and gears are in working order, they depart. Depending on the distance and time frame, the team may bike directly to the location. Otherwise, they pack the bikes into a van and head out.
Them team usually deploys to an event for eight to 12 hours. When they’re not making calls, they patrol the venue.
“This allows us to go out and mingle in the community and answer questions,” Powell said. “It’s more of a community service position instead of being confined in an ambulance and running calls. On the bike team, we’re able to go out there and see people in real time. It’s more personable.”
More importantly, however, is the mobility of the team. Since a bicycle can reach places where an ambulance can’t, more stories like the one a survivor shared with Powell at Piedmont Park take place thanks to the Grady EMS Bike Team.
“All in all in EMS, out-of-hospital cardiac survival rates are very low,” Stallings said. “With the team, we have a (much better) success rate, because we can get to patients quickly.”
MEET MEMBERS OF THE GRADY EMS BIKE TEAM
Jason Powell
On his background:
“I got into public safety cycling while I was involved in a program through the Boy Scouts of America. EMS bike teams were relatively new, and I got into that way. It made me want to pursue a career in emergency medical services. In 2006, I started with the Grady Health system. In 2007, I was added to the Grady EMS Bike Team. In 2009, I took on a leadership role as the team captain and coordinator.
On the team’s largest event:
“The Peachtree Road Race is always our biggest venue with the most bystanders. Almost every year we have a cardiac arrest on the course. Traditionally, an ambulance isn’t going to be able to get on the course due to the sheer amount of people who are there. You have 100,000 spectators and 60,000 runners. Vehicles just can’t to get on the course. In every circumstance, our bike team has always gotten there first and applied a defibrillator.”
On his responsibilities:
“I oversee the operational and logistical aspects, as well as scheduling. So when a request for staffing comes in, in comes in through our events division. When a bike team component is added to event, in addition to first aid techs, golf carts, ambulances and other things, they send it over to me, and I start staffing it based on the need. They might need four to 14 bike medics. …I also oversee the logistical aspects by maintaining the bicycles. And I oversee all of our supplies and purchasing and the maintenance over all of that.”
Gail Stallings
On her background
“I have been at Grady for 12 years. I started off as an EMT and upgraded to paramedic. I work in the streets as part of our bio safety transport team. We work with the doctors of the CDC and Emory. We train to transport patients with highly infectious and dangerous diseases, and move them safely to the care they need. We did the Ebola transports a couple of years ago. And I’m currently the lead instructor for our paramedic program.”
On getting involved with the Grady EMS Bike Team:
“The great thing about Grady is there are an infinite number of things you can do. I love working on the ambulance and have always enjoyed it. But it’s really fun to have a day when you go out and ride a bike, and you still have patient contact. So, it’s a lot of what I do on the ambulance, but it’s a little bit different, and you never have a bad day on a bike. I love being outside and being a part of the event.”
On what the differences between working as a bike medic and a paramedic:
“On an ambulance, we always have a partner and a team. We have an ambulance full of equipment for whatever situation comes up. Obviously, we can’t fit anywhere near the level of equipment on a bike. So we adapt a lot more and operate a bit differently. We don’t have a monitor, but we have an AED. We can’t do complex cardiac things, but we can do immediate life-saving things. That’s more where our care is geared.”
Asher Morris
On his background:
“In 2005, I was living abroad in Israel. And I ended up volunteering for their ambulance service there. When I moved back to Atlanta in 2006, I started working in the ER at Crawford Long. I went to college in New York, and I did some medical things here and there, but I would come back to Atlanta during my vacations and would continue to work at Crawford Long. In 2009, when I graduated from college, I took a job at Grady EMS. …Before I started with Grady, I worked with Crawford Long at their medical tent at the Publix Marathon. I saw the Grady EMS Bike Team there, and I thought it looked really cool. When I came to work at Grady, I approached Jason (Powell) about it. I started with the bike team there. I thought it was a really neat idea to have mobile first response. I didn’t realize how complicated it can be, how much equipment you have to carry and what all you do.”
On one of his most monumental bike team experiences:
In 2010, there was a cardiac arrest save at Piedmont Road and 10th Street during the Peachtree Road Race. I was actually the second bike responder there. When I arrived, the runner was still in cardiac arrest. We did compressions and airway management. The first person on the scene had defibrillated the patient with an AED with no positive response. As we continued with the compressions, we shocked him again. We were actually able to get a pulse back and the patient was able to talk before he was transported to the hospital. That was probably the most meaningful call that I’ve had since being on the bike team.”
On what he enjoys most about the bike team:
“I enjoy the physical activity aspect of it, and you get to meet people. A lot of people ask questions. Their moods and their attitudes really affect us. At these events, people are happy to be there. They’re cheering and screaming loudly, and they’re very excited. Just seeing everyone excited keeps us excited, and I really like that. That’s much different than responding at people’s houses and seeing people at their worst. At these events we get to see everyone at their best before they hit their worst.”
