A new emergency toolkit that coordinates and improves responsiveness to an active shooter or hostile intruder incident has been introduced by Kingfisher Medical, the North American partner of TSG.
The Rapid Onset Violence Emergency Response kit, or ROVER™, provides first responders with a deployment-ready, suitcase-sized toolkit to efficiently coordinate information, rapidly treat life-threatening injuries and quickly remove the injured.
The toolkit addresses the new paradigm shift among EMS/FIRE and law enforcement to work as a team – on scene – with a more coordinated and efficient approach.
“We’ve seen hundreds of active shooter incidents where EMS/fire and law enforcement each set up separate command posts, essentially working in different silos,” says Kingfisher Medical vice president Bob Otter, a 20-year veteran of the fire service himself. “This scenario can create dramatic and unnecessary delays in getting to these critically injured patients.”
Otter says that the response paradigm is shifting, and that law enforcement partners are responding differently. “We built a tool that gives the responders what they need to save lives and do it as safely as possible,” he says. “ROVER essentially gives the incident commander everything he or she needs to coordinate his/her personnel; come up with a game plan; rapidly treat the treatable; and efficiently remove them.”
The toolkit lid opens to the whiteboard with pre-printed cues for command staff, as well as information gathering. This keeps all emergency responders on the same page with the number of victims, victim location and other vital treatment information. “In these dynamic, dangerous, and confusing incidents, it’s important to have access to one plan, as well as an updated status of emergency personnel, injuries and casualties,” explains Otter.
The ROVER toolkit also includes a number of IFAK trauma kits with rapid intervention supplies to treat those most seriously injured. The compact kits are MOLLE compatible and pre-stocked with life-saving devices or can be custom configured to the agency’s needs or protocols.
Additionally, ROVER includes the military grade Xtract2, a lightweight device that cocoons victims for a faster and safer extraction from the scene. The Xtract2 folds to the size of a bread loaf, yet is strong enough to lift or drag victims away from the scene with fewer emergency personnel. The Xtract2 reduces first responder exposure because victims can be rapidly removed from dangerous areas.
“We believe every community should have this emergency kit available to its responders, as the first line of defense during an active shooter or hostile intruder incident” says Otter. “While we hope these kits never have to be deployed in a real world scenario, we want communities of every size to have access to the most up-to-date tools. Unfortunately, we never know where it will happen next.”