Delta team ready for annual 'Trek'

By AMY CALDER
Staff Writer

Originally @ http://morningsentinel.mainetoday.com/news/local/3998015.html

Thursday, June 14, 2007

WATERVILLE -- Bill McKenna has seen it all when it comes to being part of the Delta Ambulance medical team tracking bikers on the Trek Across Maine to raise money for lung health.

He remembers a couple of years ago, the temperature hit 90 degrees and the pavement temperature was 104. Bikers were dropping like flies, he said.

"We set up an emergency M.A.S.H. clinic at UMF," said McKenna, Delta's community relations director. "We had dozens of people on I.V.'s. We had people lying all over the place."

Another time, a 78-year-old physician was pedaling in the Trek and denied that he was in trouble, according to McKenna.

"He was saying, 'Yes, I can do it.' He wasn't giving up. He was looking terrible. He ended up in the hospital and was two days in (the cardiac care unit) with cardiac problems."

Such are the scenarios McKenna and other Delta team volunteers encounter on the three-day, 170-mile American Lung Association of Maine Trek from Sunday River to Owls Head. This year's trek starts Friday and continues through Sunday.

The first leg of the journey is from Sunday River in Newry to University of Maine at Farmington; the second leg, from UMF to Colby College in Waterville; and the third, from Colby to Owls Head.

For the ninth year in a row, Delta is coordinating and sponsoring the medical response team, which monitors 2,200 bikers who pedal between 50 and 60 miles a day.

Delta is dedicated to the effort for a simple reason, according to McKenna, who has been on the medical team nine years for Delta and five or six years before that.

"Delta is in the health-care business and can't always be on clean-up; we have to promote health and safety," said McKenna, 56. "It's a good way for us to put our money where our mouth is."

Eight to 10 volunteer emergency medical technicians and paramedics for the Delta team ride bicycles with trek participants and wear phones and small first aid kits.

Delta also has several vans equipped as life-support ambulances. A designated van is equipped with two-way radios, cell phones and a ham radio; computer-assisted mapping and satellite locators are in key response vehicles.

"Our goal is to stop and help a trekker, and help them get back in the ride," McKenna said.

Volunteer medics help with all sorts of problems bikers encounter and if necessary, make sure they get to a hospital via a local ambulance service.

"People can crash their bicycle, they can get hit by a car, they can go off the road into the bushes," McKenna said.

Most problems arise from bad knees, complications from diabetes or asthma, or dehydration, according to McKenna.

"Anything that can happen in normal life happens on the Trek," he said.

The temperature this weekend is expected to reach 85 degrees, which is expected to cause problems, he said. But Delta volunteers are prepared.

"They're in it because the Lung Association's doing good work and it's a good way to help," McKenna said. "We can't all write checks, but we can all do something."

The Lung Association raises more than $1 million during the Trek, which Delta's executive director, Tim Beals, has participated in for as many years as McKenna.

"He actually pedals it," McKenna said. "He's one of our pedaling medics."

A paramedic, McKenna has been with Delta since 1984. Prior to becoming community relations director in 2000, he was operations manager for Delta's Augusta base.

Years ago when he was president of the Maine Paramedics Association, he worked on the Trek as a motorcycle medic. Later, the executive director of the Lung Association, a fellow member of the Augusta Rotary Club, asked McKenna if Delta would be willing to develop a medical team for the Trek. McKenna said it took him about three seconds to say "yes."

This time around, he is driving the "Med-Assist" truck, which has a medical kit, ham radio, VHF radio, cell phone and other equipment. He also runs errands when needed.

"I'm the gofer; that's why we have that generic name, 'Assist,'" he said.

All sorts of people from all over the state volunteer on the team, according to McKenna. They include Harry Grimmnitz, an emergency room doctor at MaineGeneral Medical Center in Augusta; Randy Gauvin, a physician's assistant at Franklin Memorial Hospital; Betty Chesley, a registered nurse and paramedic from Cape Elizabeth; Jeremy Damren, a paramedic from Belgrade; Pete Massey, a paramedic; and Nancy Bell, an EMT.

McKenna said making preparations for the trip can be hard work.

"During the event it's exciting and rewarding; preparing for the Trek is sometimes frustrating because you know what you need but you don't know what you'll need," he said. "You have to plan for everything."

Delta is a not-for-profit service covering central Maine and also has a base in Waterville. Supporters for the Delta effort include Unicel, Hussey Communications, O'Connor GMC and Auto Trim Design of Maine.

Amy Calder -- 207-861-9247
acalder@centralmaine.com

Staff photo by Jim Evans

DELTA TREK: Delta Ambulance has loaded its medical vans as they support the upcoming Trek Across Maine bike ride. Bill McKenna is the community relations director for Delta.