WHEN the State Emergency Service pagers go off, a dedicated
team of volunteers have eight minutes to respond.
According to Swan Hill SES
member Julie Jochs the “adrenalin starts to pump” as the volunteers make their
way to the SES shed.
“Your training kicks in and you do what you have to do,”
she said.
Having joined the SES 13 years ago, Ms Jochs clearly remembers the
first accident she ever attended.
“It was a train accident at Lake Boga,” she
said.
“The first one always sticks in your mind because you don’t know how
you will react.”
The volunteer group has been subject to some pretty gruesome
sights while attending accidents — strewn body parts, impalements, horrific cuts
and exposed bones.
“You have to be able to deal with blood,” Ms Jochs
said.
“If the person is trapped but still alive you have to deal with their
anxiety and you have to be able to liaise and work together with the other
emergency services to get the best outcome.”
For more on this story, see Friday’s edition of The Guardian (3/5/13).
