A man has shot himself.The nearest available shock trauma ambulance is 20 minutes away.
But a paramedic supervisor with some emergency medical equipment in his car responds to the radio call and arrives on the scene within 9 minutes.
The supervisor, Lieutenant Mike Fahey, is a nationally certified paramedic.
He quietly talks to the patient while he bandages the bullet hole.
Finding the patient's blood pressure alarmingly low, he immediately starts intravenous blood plasma,
His movements are deliberate and his voices are calm.
Come in, take control of the situation and remain clam.
Chaos is contagious and so is the calm that you have. When the patient looks up at you and you're clam, then you're reassuring, they calm down.
The paramedic ambulance with advanced life support equipment arrives twelve minutes later, and Fahey's patient is loaded on a stretcher, ready to go.
But the patient is in shock. If he stays in shock, he has a poor chance of survival.
Inside the ambulance, they start another line of plasma and apply medical anti-shock trousers. Those are rubberized trousers to squeeze the blood from the legs back to the brain and other vital organs.
Through radio communication, everyone has agreed to send him by ambulance to the regional trauma center.
It's only six minutes by land, it's available. and the regional center is equipped for his particular injury.
They're putting on the trousers now. As soon as they get that, they'll be able to start going down the highway.
Let's go. If we can get the patient to the trauma center within 20 minutes, we go by land. If it's going to be longer than twenty minutes, we try to go by air.
Captain Linda Sterling. She's Mike Fahey's boss at the local emergency medical service.
When one of her paramedics needs a medevac helicopter, the request goes quickly to the SYSCOM, the statewide communication center.
Three large screens dominate the darkened room at SYSCOM.
The right screen shows which hospital can take what kind of injury.
The center screen shows the location of all medevac helicopters, and one of the left shows the helicopter landing pad at the main shock trauma center.
SYSCOM operations chief Andy Polavski tells us what's happening.
Part of the operation here is the SYSCOM operation: system communications. SYSCOM They serve as the coordinators of the medevac activity in the state.
This is the dispatch point for the State Police helicopters and the US Park Police helicopters.
SYSCOM can also connect by radio any paramedic in the state,with any hospital or any emergency specialist.
In shock trauma injuries, minutes can mean life or death.
Maryland's communication system saves precious time by connecting citizens, ambulances, helicopters and hospitals.
Doctor Adams Cowley, founder of the system, said, " If I can get you and stop you bleeding and restore your blood pressure within an hour of your accident, then I can probably save your life."