Palatine Fire Rehab Has Firefighters Going to the Dogs

On Friday, Oct. 15, the Palatine Fire Rehab team had another opportunity to drill with MABAS Division 1 Firefighters. Nothing new, the Rehab Team has drilled with these firefighters several times before. The purpose of this team is to monitor and assess firefighters after they complete a shift in the fire event. This involves checking vital signs, blood pressure, pulse, breathing rate and blood oxygen levels. The ultimate goal is to make sure firefighters are fit to go back into the event by lowering core body temperatures, bringing the vital signs into normal ranges and rehydrating them. This is a relatively new program, Palatine being one of only a handful of Fire Rehab Teams in the entire state.

So, this program has been in operation for a couple of years. What makes this drill so special? Well, for the first time in this state (and very likely, the entire country) Therapy Dogs were introduced to the rehabilitation process. If you don't know, Therapy Dogs are used regularly in nursing homes and many hospitals to help ease the stress of those environments. Empirical evidence has demonstrated that the touch of a dog almost always lowers an individual's blood pressure and in many cases, significantly. Some volunteers on the Fire Rehab Team got the bright idea – why not use Therapy Dogs to help lower the blood pressure of the firefighters?

Animals from the Rainbow Critical Response Unit were invited to help rehab the firefighters.

The drill went very much as expected. The firefighters enjoyed the presence of the dogs, all of which demonstrated extraordinary behavior (the dogs, not the firefighters). It was the observation of medical personnel that the blood pressure and pulse rates came down more quickly than past experience. In fact, in one instance it was observed that one firefighter's blood pressure came down more than 30 points in less than ten minutes. It appears the dogs were a success.

MABAS Division 1 (Mutual Aid Box Alarm System) includes fire departments from Palatine, Palatine Rural, Hoffman Estates, Schaumburg, Des Plaines, Elk Grove Village, Wheeling, Arlington Heights, Mt. Prospect, Streamwood and Rolling Meadows. Officers from the other departments are very impressed with the Palatine Rehab Team and several are looking at trying to develop similar programs in their municipalities.