A8
OREGON
East Oregonian
Tuesday, December 8, 2020
Fort McDermitt EMS/Contributed Photo
Two paramedics and an advanced paramedic stand with one of Fort McDermitt Tribe EMS Rescue’s two ambulances.
Reservation on Oregon-Nevada border fills gap in rescue net
Fort McDermitt
Tribe EMS Rescue
ready to provide
advanced life
support in southern
Malheur County
By LILIANA FRANKEL
The Enterprise
McDERMITT, Nev. —
For the better part of four
years, whenever residents
of the Fort McDermitt Pai-
ute-Shoshone Reservation
in the southern part of Mal-
heur County needed emer-
gency medical service, the
ambulance would arrive
from Winnemuca — about
74 miles away.
“I think I got COVID
back in January,” said Ron
Eagleye Johnny, a member
and former chairman of the
tribe. “I couldn’t breathe.
And when the ambulance
came for me, it billed me
about $10,000.”
But costs have gone down
dramatically since June 2020,
when Johnny inaugurated
the Fort McDermitt Tribe
EMS Rescue, based out of
the reservation. The service
is government-funded and
not-for-profit, and doesn’t
discriminate between native
and non-native patients.
Anyone living in the Jor-
dan Valley area of Malheur
County also is eligible to
receive aid.
“We wouldn’t mind going
all the way to Burns Junction
or farther if they needed the
service,” said Johnny, who is
the EMS rescue chief.
Fort McDermitt Tribe
EMS Rescue operates two
fully equipped pickup trucks
and two ambulances and
has a staff of 10, including
Johnny. Among the staff
members are three para-
medics, an emergency med-
ical services registered
nurse, an emergency med-
ical responder and four
advanced emergency medi-
cal technicians.
Before the 2000s, nurse
practitioner Rodney Bur-
rows was the main source of
emergency transport on the
reservation at Fort McDer-
mitt. He was known for get-
ting a patient in his van,
provided by Indian Health
Services, and driving to
meet any ambulance com-
ing out from Winnemuca,
Johnny said.
Then,
according
to
that it would be withdrawing
funding from Indian Health
Service facilities at Fort
McDermitt, including both
the small medical clinic and
the ambulance service, said
Johnny.
The
Paiute-Shoshones
subsequently won a court fil-
ing that restored funding.
“ALL WE WANT TO DO IS PROVIDE
EXCELLENT EMERGENCY MEDICAL
CARE TO THOSE THAT LIVE ON OR
NEAR THE RESERVATION.”
— Ron Eagleye Johnny, Fort McDermitt Tribe EMS rescue chief
Johnny, in 2003, the fed-
eral government recog-
nized its responsibility to
the Pauite-Shoshone peo-
ple to provide emergency
medical services. For the
first time, the tribe had an
ambulance service at its own
disposition.
But in 2016, the federal
government announced at a
hearing in Washington, D.C.,
“All we want to do is pro-
vide excellent emergency
medical care to those that
live on or near the reserva-
tion,” Johnny said.
Since June 2020, Johnny
and his colleagues have been
doing just that, in both Mal-
heur County and in Hum-
boldt County in Nevada. The
Paiute-Shoshone reservation
straddles the state line, and
U.S. Highway 95 runs right
through their area of cover-
age. According to Johnny,
rollovers of trucks and other
vehicles are the most com-
mon accidents the service
attends.
“The main culprit is an
overweight trailer and a
vehicle that is too light to
tow it,” said Johnny.
The Fort McDermitt
Tribe EMS Rescue charges
only the mandatory min-
imum fees to those using
the service — a base rate
between $600 and $800
depending on the service
required, plus $20 per mile
traveled in the ambulance.
According to Johnny,
his service has a mutual aid
agreement with Jordan Val-
ley Ambulance Service to
report to the scene of acci-
dents when they are closer
to the reservation. Repre-
sentatives of Jordan Valley
Ambulance Service couldn’t
be reached for comment.
Lt. Rich Harriman, of the
Emergency
Management
office of Malheur County,
confirmed the county is
working with Johnny to
establish shared use of the
county dispatch service. A
Malheur County Court reso-
lution, delayed by COVID, is
in the works.
The advanced life sup-
port system that Johnny’s
team operates, which is the
most advanced in the area,
“could help us out a great
deal,” said Harriman. “Espe-
cially in that Highway 95
corridor where we have so
many crashes and wrecks.”
Johnny takes pride that
the Fort McDermitt Tribe
EMS Rescue offers such
a high level of service — a
notch above what was previ-
ously offered by the Indian
Health Service. His service
has recently taken to doing
public events, like a Hallow-
een trunk-or-treat, to con-
nect with the community.
“Our people have been
here for thousands of years,”
he said. “We’re not going
anywhere. And now our
ambulance service is here
too.”
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