RELEASE: December 4, 2003

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Paramedics trained to spot child abuse

Following Human Service Commissioner Gwendolyn L. Harris’ lead to improve community stakeholders’ ability to spot and report child abuse, Dr. David Sharlin, the pediatric consultant who handles the Division of Youth and Family Services (DYFS) cases in Mercer County, ran an intensive training session for Mercer County Paramedics last month on how to spot signs of child abuse.

Donating his time for the Sunday training session, Sharlin gave a slide and PowerPoint presentation to about 28 paramedics as part of a program sponsored by Capital Health System Emergency Medical Services. The program was a refresher class for National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians – Paramedic level. The class was held on the weekend of November 8 and 9 at the Union Titusville Fire and EMS Headquarters. The class presented by Dr. Sharlin was part of the national requirements for training paramedics… an 18-hour re-certification refresher course.

“His presentation, especially his color slides of injuries, provided valuable information for the recognition and treatment of children who have been abused. EMS is faced with this dilemma in the field and the statistics and injury patterns were eye-opening for the advanced responders.” said Laurie Roe, assistant clinical coordinator for Capital Health Systems’ Emergency Medical Services.

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