Hackensack to deploy three in one mobile medical response unit
Federal funding of $3.2 million makes this unique approach possible; FEMA’s Carolina Med1 unit seen as too large for Hackensack’s streets; a trauma unit, surgery bay, and lab can operate seperately or as a aingle unit
A tight fit. That is what Hackensack, New Jersey emergency planners think of FEMA’s Carolina Med1 rapid response unit. The size of a tractor-trailer, it wold have a hard time navigating the city’s narrow streets, especially in a post-disaster environment with the streets strewn with debris. “Can you imagine getting one or two tractor-trailers across the George Washington Bridge during rush hour, in the middle of a catastrophe, with debris and people scattered everywhere?” said Rep. Steve Rothman, who helped bring the city $3.2 million for a leaner, meaner unit scheduled to be up and running within nine months. “It would be virtually impossible, making this life-saving system unavailable to help our people in times of dire need.”
The system might take the polygamist pledge as a motto: “When three become one.” Each can be used seperately, or come together like a Transformer toy into a single unit. The first is a mobile trauma unit, the second holds lab equipment to immediately analyze powders and detect biological agents, and the third is a mobile operating room. The vehicles will be operated by a local hospital’s pre-existing disaster-preparedness team — approximately 80 doctors, nurses, and technicians.
-read more in Josh Lipowsky’s New Jersey Jewish Standard report
