2004 March for women's lives - DC

DC NOTES

Very big march and rally on the mall - maybe 1.5 Million people. Many ages, great-grandmothers were there with their great-granddaughters.

The Feminist Majority health workers did not know ahead of time who are the street medics, but they gained respect for us as the day went on.

The tents were too close to the speakers, presenting what maybe the number one health risk from the day. Street medics used our own money to buy some earplugs for people, and the speakers finally got turned down, but if possible tents (especially treatment areas) should NEVER be next to the speakers.

The Feminist Majority clinic tents had BLS kits and bandaids, and were unprepared gear-wise for most of what street medic clinicians saw through the day. We used TRAM supplies for musculo-skeletal injuries, allergies, nausea + vomiting; the standard problems associated wth large outdoor gatherings.

The 10th st. tent was amazingly staffed all day by a good group of volunteers.

Sreetmedics did not provide much coverage of the majority of the march, focussing 3/4 of our energies on a very small group of protestors - Anti-fascist, black bloc and radical queer feeder marches.

While Feminist Majority bought their doctors emergency supplies, street medics financed our work with very tight budgets. Some leftover Feminist Majority supplies were contributed to DAMN + TRAM (thank you!), but no money flowed out for us. DAMN and TRAM (and the 2 other street medic groups that worked the march) should get some donations toward our work, if that's at all possible.

Many of the Feminist Majority doctors did not have experience relevant to action clinical work. At one time, a street medic was staff in 10th st tent with a Urologist and an OBGYN. A woman came to the tent with an injured foot, and one of the docs confided to the medic that she had not looked at a foot in 10 years. They transferred care to the medic (with only 10 days of relevant training). A bridge training for doctors might help this.

There was a really big communications gap, which was dangerous. Nowhere in the medical system could we deal with problems that required communications. When a street medic requested an ambulance for a medical emergency, we found that the docs, the EMTs, Dr Beth, the sound people; none were in radio contact with the Lifestar ambulances Feminist Majority hired to do EMS. The ambulance closest to 10th st was empty (no crew), and it was suggested that another street medic walk all the way to the stage to ask the closest ambulance to the medic who had responded to the emergency for backup. When the second medic asked for a ride from the go-karts, she found out we had no contact with the go-karts either. It is not too difficult to rent a CB or GMRS/FRS system and have a dispatch system when dealing with 1.5 Million marchers. If we even knew the Lifestar dispatch number, or the frequency they use, we could call them directly by my cell phone, CB, or GMRS/FRS that we brought for that purpose. But there was no contact list for the hired EMS.

There was no contact between these important and relevant parties:
 * First aid tents a, b, c
 * Lifestar ambulances
 * Go-karts
 * Street medics

So the street medics ended up being the runners for important info.

Last, we couldn't hear our phones when they rang, and so failed to have a dependable dispatch system ourselves.

Written by TRAM clinicians