Page 153 - Journal of Special Operations Medicine - Spring 2015

Spring Committee for

Tactical Emergency Casualty Care (C-TECC) Update

Reed Smith, MD; Joshua Bobko, MD; Geoff Shapiro, EMT-P;
Brendan Hartford, EMT-P; David Callaway, MD

OVERVIEW Fergusson Debrief
Progress on the widespread application and operational Guideline Committee members Dr David Tan and Rob­
implantation of TECC as the standard for high­threat ert Wylie gave us a fantastic impromptu debrief on the
civilian operational medical response continues to grow. tactical response to the Ferguson, MO, riots over the
In the past 6 months, presentations on and discussions past few months—several learning points were passed:
involving TECC implantation have been held at senior
state, regional, and federal levels. Much of the national • The need to prepare for extended mobile operations:
expansion of TECC is supported by the following orga­ most TAC operations are static on location in one
nizations and documents: place. In Ferguson, responders moved constantly for
over 10 hours based on crowd movements. This high­
International Association of Fire Fighters
http://www.iaff.org/Comm/PDFs/IAFF_RTF_Training_ lighted the importance of fluid zones of operations
and phases of care during dynamic situations.
Position_Statement.pdf
• With the significant heat and humidity at the time,
International Association of Fire Chiefs members of their team suffered from dermatitis and
http://www.iafc.org/files/1ASSOC/IAFCPosition_ heat rashes. As a stop­gap, they used wet wipes to pro­
ActiveShooterEvents.pdf vide hygiene and drying in the areas affected. Aggres­
sive heat injury prevention strategies are critical.
Urban Fire Forum • Resupply issues and basic logistics during large­
http://www.nfpa.org/research/resource­links/first scale crowd movement remain challenging. Crowd
­responders
movements often compromised the designated “cold
United States Fire Administration zones” (e.g., minimal risk geographic areas), making
http://www.nfpa.org/~/media/Files/Research/Resour­ supply of food and water for operational teams dif­
celinks/Firstresponders/UrbanFireForum/UFFactive_ ficult. Planning should be done to allow for individ­
shooter_guide.pdf ual Go Bags to limit the need for intact supply lines
during mobile operations. In addition, the concept of
“cold zones” needs to be reconsidered, redefined or
C-TECC Winter SOMSA Meeting Summary eliminated from the lexicon in dynamic events.
The meeting at SOMSA this year was extremely well • Social media: Counterinsurgency operations and ef­
attended, by both our members and many conference fective use of social media were used by the crowds. It
attendees. The support from SOMA this year was fan­ is well worth the time to become more familiar with
tastic as always, as demonstrated by how easy it was these tactics, as well, to develop social media monitor­
to expand our room from 50 to 150 seats. Thank you ing programs for your agency.
again to the administration and directors for the SOMA
Scientific Assembly. TECC First Care Provider (Leads: Dr Josh Bobko, Mark
Anderson, EMT­P, and Dr Rich Kamin)
The Board of Directors (BOD) presented a brief up­
date regarding the finances of the committee as well Guidelines Committee member Dr Joshua Bobko pre­
as a thank you to Brent Bronson and North American sented on the First Care Provider initiative. The term
Rescue Products for their continued support of the com­ First Care Provider, coined by Dr Bobko and Board of
mittee. The next BOD meeting will be in January and Advisors (BOA) member Todd Baldridge, is meant to
will discuss the addition of at least one new member to denote those people who are involved in a high­threat
the Guidelines Committee. disaster or mass casualty scenario by proximity but are

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