If you haven’t registered for the Killingworth Ambulance Association’s upcoming EMT class, don’t worry. You still have time.

You just don’t have much of it.

The course will begin Monday, Aug. 29, at 6 p.m. at the KAA’s Route 81 headquarters and is expected to run approximately three-and-half months. Classes are held on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6-10 p.m. and five Saturdays from 8 a.m.- 4 p.m. and protective facemasks are not required.

Instruction will include CPR, patient assessment and treatment, with the course led by Mike and Marguerite Haaga. Both are EMTs and KAA board members and have taught the class for over 20 years.

However, the last time they completed an EMT course was in the winter and spring of 2020.  Originally scheduled for September, 2019, the class was postponed because of low enrollment and resumed in January of the following year.

Despite extraordinary circumstances that included protective facemasks, social distancing and one student who attended from Idaho via Zoom, the class was a success. Ten individuals participated, and eight became certified EMTs – including six who joined the Killingworth Ambulance Association.

COVID canceled the 2020 fall program, and a shortage of students erased last autumn’s course.

The class is six college credits and highly recommended for persons interested in pursuing medical careers.

“Not only is it a chance to help out the community,” said Marguerite Haaga, “it’s a good step toward something in the science, medical and nursing fields.”

For more information, please contact the Killingworth Ambulance Association at (860) 663-2450.

The Killingworth Ambulance Association will hold its first “Stop the Bleed” class of 2022 on Saturday, Aug. 13, at the KAA’s Route 81 headquarters. The course, which begins at noon, is free and open to all persons 12 years and older.

The class typically lasts one to one-and-a-half hours, with participants required to wear protective facemasks. All those interested are asked to complete RSVP forms available here ( RSVP – Killingworth Ambulance Association) or in the “Classes” section on this site’s pull-down menu.

“Stop the Bleed” is a nationwide awareness campaign (STOP THE BLEED – Save a Life | Stop The Bleed) launched in 2015 by the White House and Department of Homeland Security. It is designed to empower bystanders with the training to deal with traumatic events and emergency bleeding situations before help arrives.

Its value was underscored in October, 2019, when a state trooper responding to an accident at Middletown’s Vinal Technical High School implemented a “Stop the Bleed” kit to treat what was called “a catastrophic injury” involving profuse bleeding.

Officials later said quick thinking by the state trooper may have saved the victim’s life.

The KAA first offered “Stop the Bleed” classes in July, 2017, making Killingworth the first Connecticut town to have its citizens certified.  Since then, it has conducted 23 classes and had “Stop the Bleed” stations” installed at the Killingworth Public Library and Town Hall.

For more information, please contact the Killingworth Ambulance Association at (860) 663-2450.

Maybe it’s the fourth time that’s a charm.

For the fourth time in the past four years, the Killingworth Ambulance Association has plans to offer an EMT class in the fall. That’s the good news. The bad is that the last three attempts at autumn instruction had to be canceled or postponed.

Nevertheless, instructors Mike and Marguerite Haaga will try it again this fall, with the first class beginning Monday, Aug. 29, at 6 p.m. at the KAA’s Route 81 headquarters. The course is expected to last three-and-a-half months, with instruction on Mondays and Thursdays from 6-10 p.m. and five Saturdays from 8 a.m.- 4 p.m.

Mike Haaga is the KAA’s Chief of Service. Marguerite Haaga is its Vice President. Both are EMTs and have taught the class for over two decades. Instruction will include CPR, patient assessment and treatment. Protective facemasks are not required.

The last time the Haagas completed an EMT course was in the winter and spring of 2020. Originally scheduled to be held in September, 2019, it was postponed because of low enrollment and resumed in January of the following year.

Despite extraordinary circumstances that included protective facemasks, social distancing and one student who attended from Idaho via Zoom, the class was a success. Ten individuals participated, and eight became certified EMTs – including six who joined the Killingworth Ambulance Association.

COVID canceled the 2020 fall program, while a shortage of students erased last autumn’s course.

The class is six college credits and highly recommended for persons interested in pursuing medical careers.

“Not only is it a chance to help out the community,” said Marguerite Haaga, “it’s a good step toward something in the science, medical and nursing fields.”

For more information, please contact the Killingworth Ambulance Association at (860) 663-2450.

(Pictured above: Kylie Studzinski with her parents at HKHS Senior Awards Night)

Haddam-Killingworth senior Kylie Studzinski is this year’s recipient of the Killingworth Ambulance Association scholarship, and she is as rare as she is deserving.

Honored at Wednesday’s Senior Awards Night at Haddam-Killingworth High School, Kylie is the first lone scholarship winner in recent memory for the KAA, which awarded 18 the previous four years – including six in 2021.

But Kylie Studzinski deserves to stand alone.

An accomplished student, she received four scholarships Wednesday –including the KAA award – and will attend the University of Delaware this fall where she plans to major in neuroscience.

“I have a thorough interest in how neurotransmitters contribute to how humans act the way they do,” she said in her application essay, “and I intend on getting my questions answered through extensive research. I hope that in my undergraduate years I can do bench-level research and work my way up to clinical research. This will serve me well for a career in medicine.”

Killingworth Ambulance Association scholarships are granted annually and are narrow in scope. Recipients must meet four criteria: 1) They must be Killingworth residents, 2) attend a two-or-four-year college the following fall, 3) plan to major in the medical, emergency services or allied fields and carry a GPA of 3.0 or higher.

Kylie Studzinski checked all of those boxes.

In addition to a superior academic record, she was involved in cross country for four years and participated in indoor and outdoor track, running the 800, mile and two-mile races. She also logged 80 hours of community service — volunteering to work at vacation Bible school, assisting with cross-country meets and banquets at the H-K Middle School and working with the Hartford Kids Christmas organization.

But that’s not all.

She was also active in a youth coalition group called IGNITE, which specializes in drug prevention programs but is broader in scope – with Kylie this past winter organizing a Donation Day for the St. Vincent De Paul homeless shelter in Middletown and the Haddam Community Closet. A member of the group the past three years, she is co-president.

Now her focus is on her next four years of education … except in Kylie’s case, it’s five.

“Once I enter my senior year of college,” she said, “I will apply for the 4 + 1 program, where I can get my masters degree in only one year. I am also hoping to do as much lab research as I can while working toward my undergraduate degree to further prepare me for schooling after that.”

Studzinski’s achievement marks the third time in the past four years that KAA scholarships have gone to an all-female class. There were six in 2019, and two one year later. Eleven of the past 14 recipients have been females, with last year’s class that included Thomas Perry, Ryan Luther and Sam Luther, breaking the run.

Quick question: Let’s say you’re an EMT responding to an emergency call in the middle of the night. You arrive at your destination, find a shared driveway with multiple mailbox numbers but aren’t sure which house corresponds to which address.

What do you do?

That’s a question Killingworth Ambulance Association EMTs confront often enough that they’re making a public appeal, reminding local residents to post visible address numbers identifying their homes. Otherwise, they said, first responders can get lost.

That sounds as logical as it is rudimentary. But, apparently, the message hasn’t gotten through.

“The biggest problem,” said Mike Haaga, the KAA’s chief of service, “is common driveways. There seem to be a lot of them in Killingworth, and some are long driveways. They’re kinda like private roads, with a house on the right and one on the left … and at the end of the road, they could have a number of mailboxes. When you stand there, how do you know which is which?”

You don’t.

“You see that,” said EMT James Fretz, “and you go, ‘Uh-oh. I don’t know if we can find it.’ “

One responder recalled a recent call where two homes were located in close proximity to each other, yet only one mailbox appeared in front of the two. Because both had reasonably long driveways, the ambulance backed down the shorter of the two, with EMTs hoping they’d come to the correct address.

They hadn’t. Result: A delay that could’ve been … but wasn’t … critical to the victim.

“I’ve had one house in the past month where the ambulance responded three times,” said an EMT. “And two of the three times we went down the wrong driveway … because neither they nor their neighbor had a house that was marked. And that’s just during the day. During the night, it’s really hard to find them.”

OK, we’ve established it’s a concern. What can you do? EMTs have a variety of suggestions, and let’s get started.

• First and foremost, if you have a mailbox at the end of your driveway, have it marked with visible numbers on both sides (preferably in reflective figures). Emergency rescue vehicles could be coming from either direction.
• If you’re on a shared driveway with multiple mailboxes, make sure to post an address number where it can be seen by first responders. Trees were mentioned as one possibility.
• If there’s more than one person inside the home, it can be helpful for an individual to stand outside and direct emergency vehicles to the address.
• If it’s an evening call, turn on lights inside the home … if, that is, it’s possible. “I hate waking up people in the middle of the night,” said one EMT, “and it’s the wrong house.”
• “Sometimes,” an EMT said, “the number is on the front of the house, but you can’t see it because the house is 100 yards in from the road. When a call comes in, it can be helpful if the victim tells the 911 operator something like the color of the house. But that can happen only if the person calling can give them the information. Often, they’ve fallen and can’t.”
• Several years ago the KAA appeared at local fairs and civic events to hand out porch light bulbs that blinked on and off after they were activated. That helped in emergencies, especially at night, with the flashing lights serving as a distress signals to first responders

“A good decision,” Plato once said, “is based on knowledge and not on numbers.” The Killingworth Ambulance Association would disagree. Its EMTs believe a good decision is based on knowledge AND numbers.

“Every little bit helps,” said Fretz. “As long as people have a number that can you see … that’s the important thing. The important thing is just to get a number on the mailbox.”

The KAA’s advice dovetails with information documenting a recent surge in responses – especially with falls. According to the Ambulance Association, it answered a record 496 calls in 2021, up 34 percent from the previous year (370), with 117 of those responses the victims of falls. That’s a 64.7 percent hike from 2020 (71).

Bottom line: Identify your home with visible numbers. Your life could depend on it.

“For those who don’t think it’s important,” said Haaga, “I’d tell them, ‘It’s not. It’s not important at all … unless you want to have an ambulance or fire truck show up at your house.’ ”

The number of emergency responses by the Killingworth Ambulance Association jumped dramatically in 2021, but the cause of those calls did not.

As was the case in 2020, victims of falls led all responses, followed by sick persons and individuals with breathing problems. Those were the same three (though not in that order) that led all calls in 2020 when the KAA responded to 370 emergencies.

So nothing different there.

But look at the number of calls compiled by the KAA. There were 496 in 2021, a 34 percent increase over the previous year. Now look at the number of fall victims. There were 117 in 2021, or 23.6 percent of the total. There were 71 last year, or 19.2 percent of the total, and 75 the year before.

That’s a 64.7 percent hike in one year, and one that’s not easy to explain.

“We didn’t pass on as many calls last year,” said Mike Haaga, the KAA’s chief of service, searching for an explanation, “so that made our call volume higher. Second, we did more mutual-aid calls to other towns. I don’t know if there was a COVID ‘rebound,’ where people weren’t calling the ambulance (in 2020) because of COVID and then thought it had subsided. But they may have been calling for more things.”

That might explain the number of calls for sick persons. That figure jumped from 36 in 2020 (9.7 percent) to 62 one year later, or 12.3 percent of the total. Breathing problems, however, did not increase. In fact, they were unchanged. Where there were 36 in 2020, there were 36 the following year.

What follows are the Top Five KAA calls for 2021:

1. Fall victims … 117 (23.6)
2. Sick persons …62 (12.3)
3. Breathing problems … 36 (7.3)
4. Chest pain … 26 (5.2)
5. Altered mental status … 25 (5.0)

What’s intriguing about these figures is that, for the first time in years, traffic accidents didn’t make the Top Five. Instead, they were sixth with 25 responses, or 4.8 percent of the total.  In 2019, for example, they were second, with 35 calls (9.9 percent).

But that was before COVID arrived.

Here’s a comparison with the Top Five of 2020:

1. Fall victims … 71 (19.2)
2. Breathing problems …. 36 (9.7)
3. Sick persons … 35 (9.5)
4. Not entered … 32 (8.6)
5. Traffic accidents … 25 (6.8)

Also of interest in 2021 were responses for unconscious persons or individuals who fainted. In 2020, there were only five. That number jumped to 12 one year later, or 2.4 percent of the total and one more than there were in 2019 (11).

KAA figures are kept annually, with calls recorded electronically on patient-care reports by EMTs on the scene.

For the first time in two years – or since the outbreak of COVID – the Killingworth Ambulance Association will hold a CPR class this Friday, May 6, at its Route 81 headquarters.

The class begins at 6 p.m. and is expected to last approximately three hours.

As was the case prior to COVID, Don McDougall will serve as an instructor. McDougall, who marks his 51^st anniversary with the KAA this summer, tried to hold a class in 2020 but cancelled it after the COVID outbreak.

He said he normally does three to four classes per year.

“People ask: Why should I take it?’ “ McDougall said of CPR. “The great percentage of heart attacks happen at home, and you could be the only person there. If you call an ambulance, it could be 10-15 minutes before somebody gets there. In the meantime, you could be saving a loved one or family member.”

McDougall speaks from experience. Outside of the KAA, he said, he’s had three experiences with heart-attack victims. The first was when he was a pre-teen visiting grandparents in Maine. Descending a set of stairs, McDougall said he turned to see his grandfather – who had followed him down the steps — fall to the floor.

He had suffered a heart attack and later died.

“If somebody had known what to do,” he said, “we might have been able to do something.”

Friday’s CPR class is free for Killingworth residents. All non-residents will be required to pay a $25 fee.

For more information, please contact the Killingworth Ambulance Association at (860) 663-2450.

(Above photo: Trevor Hines (R) with East Lyme Police Sgt. Jared Priest)

Four years ago, Trevor Hines was one of five high-school seniors to receive Killingworth Ambulance Association scholarships. A student at Haddam-Killingworth High, he said then that he planned to pursue a criminal justice degree at the University of New Haven and hoped to work with local law enforcement.

So what happened? What happened is that Trevor Hines is doing just that.

Now 22, he graduates from UNH this summer after completing an undergraduate degree in criminal justice and an internship this semester that includes 150 hours of work with the East Lyme Police Department.

“I’m grateful,” he said, one afternoon over lunch at the local Dunkin’ Donuts. “I’m glad I chose what I chose. I think it’s a really interesting profession.”

Hines conceded he wasn’t always so certain. Nobody in his immediate family has a background in law enforcement. His father works construction. His mother once taught pre-school children. Older brother Jackson works with his Dad, while younger brother Cameron is still in college. So Trevor Hines is something of an outlier … at least within the family … and it has more to do with a friend he met when he began high school than it did a family member.

“My friend’s Dad was a (State) Trooper in Troop F (Westbrook),” he said. “He always had the car around and would talk to us about work. And he was always helping people, which I thought was interesting.”

That’s when Hines started thinking about a career in law enforcement. By the time he was a high-school senior, he believed it was something he’d like to pursue. So he did. He enrolled at UNH, so highly regarded as a leader in criminal-justice programs that it was once dubbed “The Cop Shop,” and majored in — what else? — criminal justice.

Four years later, he has no regrets — especially now that he’s immersed in an internship set up through UNH’s Career Development Center.

It has Hines at the East Lyme Police Department Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays of each week, arriving somewhere around 9 each morning and sticking around until 3:30 p.m. After checking in with dispatch, he could be called on to file papers, go over reports or tag along with an officer on what are called “ride-alongs,” with Hines in the passenger seat to serve as an observer.

He doesn’t wear a uniform. He is not armed. He is a college intern in civilian clothes who looks no different than he would at school … except for a bullet-proof vest he’s required to wear.

“He responds to calls with officers,” said East Lyme Lt. Dana Jezierski, with the East Lyme police 16 years. “If it’s something that’s not high-risk, he’s able to get out of the car and watch the investigation or whatever crime is being reported.

“He’s very responsible. He’s very mature. And he’s always asking questions, which shows he has an interest. He gets along great with the officers he rides with, and they speak highly of him.”

According to Jezierski, the department has run its internship for years, usually with Mitchell College of New London. Interest in the program, she said, is increasing, with two interns from Endicott College due this summer.

“We have them come in and talk about their goals for the internship and what the police department can offer them” she said. “With Trevor, he was interested in law enforcement. He wanted a better understanding of law enforcement and how it works.”

Apparently, he found what he was after.

“What I like most about this major is the internship,” Hines said. “I get to see how things are processed and how they do things, like how they communicate with dispatch. Seeing everything first-hand instead of hearing about it in the classroom is very useful. It’s like getting hands-on work.

Trevor Hines (second from L) at HKHS in 2018.

“For me to be able to go on ‘ride-alongs’ now and to be able to think about it, and say, ‘Hey, “I’m really enjoying this’ … that’s important. A lot of schools don’t make you do an internship. So I really appreciate (UNH) putting you in a position to decide whether you really like it or not.”

Memo to UNH: He likes it.

Once upon a time, however, there was a feeling that Hines might want to pursue another career, with his grandfather, Jim Lally, saying he thought his grandson might become a game warden “because he loves the outdoors.” But there’s not much talk of that now. In fact, in two separate conversations over the past week, he never mentioned it. He spoke only of police work.

“He has a good sense of right and wrong,” his mother, Kristen Hines, said. “I think that would be something that’s a strength for him (in law enforcement). He really enjoys his classes (at UNH) and seems to have so much to tell us about case study and law. But he’s been enjoying this (internship). It’s been eye-opening for him. It’s his first chance to get one-on-one time to be involved with what he loves.”

So what’s next? Hines, who started his internship in early March, has over 100 hours on the job. That means he has approximately three weeks left in East Lyme, after which he returns to UNH to complete his last semester with a full schedule. And then?  Well, then, he said, he has one “wrap-up class” during summer semester … then a diploma … then on to what he hopes is a career in local law enforcement.

“This experience,” he said of the internship, “has had more of an impact on … not what I want to do but where I want to do it. When you work in a smaller town, you definitely work with people who are more familiar with your face. They want to have conversations with you, as compared to bigger cities where it can be harder to achieve what you’d call community policing. So (I’d like to work in) something like East Lyme or maybe the State Police; something like Troop F where you could be a resident.

“I like to talk to people. I think growing up I was kind of shy, and that was something that was hard for me. But, as I got older, it was something I was more interested in. So I’ve been pretty happy with my choice. I definitely had my doubts along the way, but the internship has made me want to this more as opposed to before. Now that I’ve learned a lot of things and talked with police officers, I’m really excited about it.”

The Killingworth Ambulance Association is still receiving applications for its 2022 scholarships, but time is running out. They must be postmarked no later than Friday, April 15.

Applications are available to graduating seniors enrolled in private or public high schools – but only to residents of Killingworth who plan on continuing their educations at two-or-four-year institutions. In addition, applicants must meet the following criteria: 1) Major in the medical, emergency services (first, police, etc.) or other allied fields; 2) engage in community service and 3) maintain a GPA of 3.0 or higher in their high-school careers.

Applications are available at Haddam-Killingworth, Mercy and Xavier High Schools or may be obtained by clicking HERE. Killingworth residents who attend other schools are invited to apply, too.

The KAA has awarded 20 scholarships over the past four years, including 10 the past two. Last year’s winners were Jasmine Byrne, Ryan Luther, Sam Luther, Thomas Perry and Kayla Fordyce. All but Fordyce, who graduated from Mercy, attended Haddam-Killingworth High School. This year’s recipients will be announced later this spring.

For more information please contact the KAA at (860) 663-2450.

(L-R: 2021 HKHS winners — Jasmine Byrne, Ryan Luther, Sam Luther and Thomas Perry)

Attention, local high-school seniors: Consider this your first alert.

Applications for the Killingworth Ambulance Association’s 2022 scholarships are now available to graduating seniors enrolled in private or public high schools.

However, they’re available only to residents of Killingworth who plan on continuing their educations at two-or-four-year institutions. In addition, applicants must meet the following criteria: 1) Major in the medical, emergency services (first, police, etc.) or other allied fields; 2) engage in community service and 3) maintain a GPA of 3.0 or higher in their high-school careers.

Applications are available at Haddam-Killingworth, Mercy and Xavier High Schools.

Completed applications must be postmarked no later than Friday, April 15, with recipients announced later this spring. Upon completion of the first semester of a continuing institution a check will be mailed to the scholarship recipient.

The KAA has awarded 20 scholarships over the past four years, including 10 the past two. Last year’s winners were Jasmine Byrne, Ryan Luther, Sam Luther, Thomas Perry and Kayla Fordyce. All but Fordyce, who graduated from Mercy, attended Haddam-Killingworth High School.

For more information please contact the KAA at (860) 663-2450.