What exactly does Winnipeg's tactical emergency medical unit do?

When police officers respond to some of our city's most dangerous calls, the TEMS unit has their back.

"I got into paramedicine because I liked chaos," said Tony Tetrault, a member of the Tactical Emergency Medical Support Service, or TEMS, unit in Winnipeg. "After 15 years I've had my fair share, but this is just a completely different dynamic."

Tetrault and his partner, Brigitte Comte, were chosen to be part of a pilot project to create a TEMS unit in Winnipeg. Winnipeg is one of the last major cities in Canada to adopt such a unit.

"In this role it's critical to stay flexible. The environment is so dynamic and could change at a moment's notice," said Comte, one of the TEMS unit's 14 advanced paramedics.

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In its first year the unit responded to 286 calls, 232 of which were training or planned events such as warrant executions. These paramedics have trained with police tactical units and are privy to all the same information as police.

"If they're doing a warrant they'll know ahead of time," said Tetrault. "They'll call for us and then we'll go meet them. We have a debrief before we go and that's where we find out where we're going, how many suspects there are. So we're able to get a good pre-plan of how many people may be there."

Unplanned events

Then there are the unplanned events, the ones for which the TEMS unit has received specialized training and which pose a greater risk to police.

In a dynamic event such as the one on July 3, where emergency crews responded to a bomb call at a law office on River Avenue, paramedics would typically be staged a block away from the scene. The presence of a TEMS unit means advanced paramedics head straight into the scene, immediately available to the bomb unit.

"Their equipment is so unlike any other equipment we've seen," said Tetrault. "A bomb suit — that's a pretty impressive piece of equipment — but if you didn't know how to get that off of a person you'd be there forever."

The dynamic events for which the TEMS unit trains don't happen every day. In fact, in this last year TEMS paramedics had contact with just 15 patients, 14 of whom had minor injuries. This is why on days without pre-planned events the TEMS unit functions as a regular unit, ready to switch gears when an incident involves such elements as clandestine drug labs, bomb threats or crisis negotiations.

Their ability to provide immediate medical support can be the difference between life and death.

"Before all of this they would stage an ambulance several blocks back," explained Comte, who, like her partner, has 15 years of experience in paramedicine.

"You would get about a 10-second report and then police would call police dispatch who would call paramedic dispatch who would radio down to the paramedic unit to go ahead and proceed, never really knowing what to expect when you were there until you get there. And then you're overwhelmed because you see the chaos."

Now the chaos is manageable.

"I haven't been scared," said Tetrault. "I can't think of a safer place to be. I'm standing around 10 well-armed, well-trained police officers and they clearly have our safety in mind."

The TEMS unit trains with the police K-9, bomb, crisis negotiation, tactical and CLAN lab units and is deployed each time these specialty teams are called to a scene. The paramedics can be difficult to spot, dressed in the same black uniforms as Winnipeg Police Service's tactical support team, but their hauling some very different equipment.

75 pounds

"It offers us protection against handgun rounds and rifle rounds so it is exceedingly heavy," said Comte as she hoisted on her vest. It's part of the 75 pounds of personal protective gear that also includes knee pads and the same helmet worn by police tactical officers.

Their vests sport two pouches — one for a radio and the other for intravenous and trauma dressings. There are two more pouches on their pants for more trauma dressings and a gas mask to protect them against gases used by police during warrant executions.

If that's not enough, they also carry a backpack slimmed down to treat only the most life-threatening of injuries. In it the TEMS medics haul drugs for trauma victims, and kits for IV access and intubation.

When a call comes in the TEMS paramedics are looking up locations and getting directions from police about the best way to enter the scene. They're arranging staging locations, amending their uniforms, and packing for any known medical conditions or the presence of children.

"Typically we'll scan the police radio on the way," said Tetrault. "You can normally tell by the amount of chatter going on whether it's an intense scene or whether things are calm at the moment."

On the way back to the station there's little time to debrief.

"Really we just get ready for the next call," said Tetrault. "Once we're done and we switch our gear back so that we're prepared to respond to our regular calls, there really isn't a whole lot of time between to talk about anything. It's just what's coming next."

The Winnipeg TEMS program is heading into its second year with plans to expand. Training and recruitment are scheduled for the fall.