Tomasz Roginski, Head of the Gdansk Motorcycle Response Unit, Discusses the Origins of Motorcycle EMS in Poland

I became a paramedic in 2000 and one year later, I started working on an emergency ambulance (“R” class in Poland). My colleague Dr. Piotr Kołodziej and I often thought about how much more convenient it would be to use motorcycles to get to patients in a more timely manner.  In 2002, Piotr made a friend at the local Harley Davidson dealer who donated a Harley Davidson Dyna Super Glide T Sport for a three-month trial with Gdansk (Poland) EMS. To get the motorcycle into service, we had to improvise many things that are standard on an EMS motorcycle today. We painted the regular white fog lights blue to make the emergency lights, we found a secondhand siren that we affixed to the bike that was much larger than it should’ve been—since it was meant for a car—and we didn’t have proper motorcycle clothing, only an old helmet I had laying around.  It was my first time riding such a big motorcycle. Until that time, my experience was riding small 350cc motorcycles. We didn’t have a proper rider training program, so it was basically just “get on and go.” My first ride on this big bike was with a passenger who was filming the experience for a local television station. For this first trial period, we rode with two emergency personnel on the bike: a paramedic and an EMS doctor. Our EMS Harley was equipped with all the equipment found on a high-level “R” class ambulance, except the stretcher and the infusion pump. With the equipment,...
Source: JEMS: Journal of Emergency Medical Services News - Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Tags: Ambulances & Vehicle Ops News Operations Source Type: news