POMPANO BEACH, Fla. – A locally-based air ambulance company hosted a town hall meeting this week to raise awareness about the rise in drug and alcohol deaths in Broward County.
"Trinity has been called for many air ambulances related to patients drinking alcohol or using drugs and then have life threatening injuries, such as falling from a hotel balcony from the fifth story, or slipping in the bathroom and having a brain hemorrhage, or falling off a golf cart and breaking their legs," Trinity Air Ambulance founder Inger Lisa Skroder said. "On Monday, we sent two medical escorts to transport a patient (heroin user) from Miami to Connecticut to the care of his family after three months of hospitalization."
Besides providing air ambulance services, Trinity holds Continuing Education Units to healthcare practitioners, such as nurses and paramedics, including the one this week at the Broward Health North Conference Center.
"We have the clinical knowledge. We have the expertise. We're bringing everyone together to stop this problem," Skroder said.
Many experts spoke at the "Identifying Impairment in the Workplace" event, including Dr. Jim Hall, who is an epidemiologist from Nova Southeastern University, Trinity's medical director Dr. Jeffrey Levy and a special agent with the DEA.
Trinity Air Ambulance's founders said medical officials and the public learned the safest ways to identify and treat anyone with drug or alcohol addiction.
"It's heart breaking. It's a very hard and upward battle for the addict, and it is also just as hard for the families," Tor Skroder, who founded the air ambulance company with his sister, said.
Click here to learn more about Trinity Air Ambulance.