(La Porte, IN) - Visitors from foreign lands have flocked to the U.S. for the World Cup. A German man recently visited La Porte County for reasons other than soccer.
Dr. Christian Wöhner is an emergency physician from central Germany. He spent the better part of last week riding around with La Porte County EMTs, trading insights and experiencing American pre-hospital care firsthand.
Late last year Wöhner reached out to La Porte County EMS Director Eric Fenstermaker about the possibility of visiting. Fenstermaker jumped at the chance, saying, “It’s always an incredible opportunity to share knowledge, compare systems, and build bonds across the global medical community.”
While Wöhner’s son participated in a camp at La Lumiere School, Dr. Chris, as he prefers to be called, took in some professional development and Hoosier hospitality with La Porte County EMTs.
Comparing notes with Dr. Chris, Fenstermaker said he picked up on some key differences between emergency procedures here and in Germany.
“The biggest thing is on a critical call, it’s [the doctor’s] job to go to the scene and stabilize the patient for the paramedics to transport,” he said, “whereas here, our paramedics do the stabilization and transport all on their own.”
Another difference, Fensteramaker said, is that the emergency physician in Germany, before transporting a patient, has to make arrangements with a hospital or care center. “It may not necessarily be the closest facility, and they may be going quite some distance away,” Fenstermaker said.
Dr. Chris started as an EMT over 30 years ago, then worked his way up to physician. During his visit last week, he was able to talk shop with a top state emergency official, as well. Dr. Eric Yazel, who is originally from Michigan City, just took over as Indiana’s Chief EMS Medical Director. He visited La Porte last Wednesday to visit with Dr. Chris.
Following his visit, Wöhner now intends to write about his findings in La Porte. According to Fenstermaker, “He has every intention of going back to Germany and publishing an article on the differences between German EMS and American EMS.”
Dr. Chris extended an invitation for La Porte EMS staff to visit Germany. “We fully intend on taking him up on that,” Fenstermaker said.
