Animals healing people

“If you’d asked me two years ago about having a dog in the station, I’d have told you that you were crazy,” Jeff Sanderson, crew chief at Hopkins County EMS said. But the opportunity to have a therapy dog on the team fell into his lap—almost literally—and it’s already proving to be a benefit. “I was always kind of leery about the whole therapy dog thing, but when you do the research about what they do for people, it’s really pretty cool.”

“I’d been looking into it for about a year,” Sanderson said. “Using therapy dogs with EMS/ first responders is really a new thing. A nationwide company, American Medical Response, started a program with two goldendoodles in 2016. They sent dogs after the Las Vegas shooting [in October 2017, during which 50 people were killed and more than 800 injured in the mass shooting at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino] to help first responders there deal with the stress they suffered working the scene. The company bigwigs saw the benefit of therapy dogs for first responders, and now they’re up to 26 dogs nationwide. That’s where the seed got planted with me.”

Dr. I.L. Balckom and wife Deborah purchased a then-10-week-old labradoodle puppy at the Hopkins County Health Care Foundation Lights of Life Gala in January, and then donated her to HCEMS.

“Deborah literally walked up to me at the gala and asked, ‘Do you want this puppy? If you want her, Doc’s going to buy her for EMS.’ So I went home from the gala with a puppy,” Sanderson recalled. Dixie fell into the

Dixie fell into the pattern at the Sanderson home right away. She was housebroken within three days, and now she has a system for when she needs to go out. She rings a string of bells hanging on the door. She doesn’t chew and has never torn up anything, Sanderson said.

“I kept asking, ‘Did I get a broken one?’” Sanderson joked.

First responders run at a constant high level of stress. According to Sanderson, Dixie is able to sense the difference between the normal stress level at the station and higher levels during a major event.

Another benefit of having Dixie in the station, according to Sanderson: “We have no crumbs. She’s our new vacuum, and she knows where all of the crumbs are in the station.”

The original plan was for Dixie to complete her first four-week training session and return for another session at one year. But Dixie excelled and completed all her training in the first session. Most of the training centered on obedience, walking with and without a leash, greeting other animals and people, and remaining calm in crowds and strange situations.

She already has her work routine down and is very excited to come to work every day. She makes her “rounds” at the station, checking in with dispatch, the administrative department and crew members coming on and off shift. “She’s fit in very well,”

“She’s fit in very well,” Sanderson said, “and the crews like having her around. She’s going to be a big benefit.”

CHRISTUS Mother Frances Hospital Sulphur Springs had to write new policies to incorporate Dixie’s duties. Sanderson plans to eventually use Dixie with both the emergency room staff and patients in the event of a bad call. She won’t be riding in ambulances on calls but will be available to come to scenes, the hospital or the EMS station. Sanderson also plans to take her on deployments for major incidents or natural disasters.

Sanderson recalled a fatality car accident that happened on State Highway 19 north a few years ago in which a family was traveling through Hopkins County when they had an accident. Both parents were killed in the crash, and the children, after being checked out, stayed at the EMS station for four or five hours, and a therapy dog on site would have been a real asset.

“I’m nobody anymore,” Sanderson quipped. “I used to walk in and people would say, ‘Hi, Jeff! How are you?’ I came up this morning to do paperwork without Dixie, and everyone wanted to know, ‘Where’s the dog?’ I’m just the dog’s driver.”