If a disaster were to strike, the FIU Florida Advanced Surgical Transport group, also known as the FIU FAST team, would be ready to respond and provide help within 24 hours.
The University Department of Emergency Management and the Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine have joined the FAST team to provide help and better serve the community with the use of university resources, namely the medical faculty.
The team is made up of nearly 100 volunteers consisting of doctors, nurse practitioners, physicians, trauma surgeons and paramedics who are trained to manage patients in various levels of critical care; they are also able to set up a 10-bed intensive care unit to perform life-saving surgical procedures on victims.
The FIU FAST team is unique due to its ability to provide immediate transportation for patients via civilian or military planes if needed. In addition to transporting victims to medical centers not located in the area, they also provide care to victims. This is important because some victims may have injuries so severe, they need to be stabilized by critical care specialists while being transported to a hospital.
Ruben Almaguer, the assistant vice president for Disaster Management & Emergency Operations at FIU, played an instrumental role in the collaboration that brought about FIU FAST.
“We do a lot of challenging exercises to prepare for any kind of disaster; if something happens in any of our campuses, whether it is a tornado, a hurricane, a plane crash or an active shooter we will be ready to respond.” Almaguer said.
The team is uniquely made of civilians who are willing to drop everything, leave their families and employers at anytime to help out victims of any major catastrophe.
“We are one of the two, if not the only university that has the level of commitment to exercises and training for emergency situations.”Almaguer said.
Almaguer made it clear that the FIU FAST team has not used nor would want to use school funding, meant for education, to sustain the team. The funding of this entire team costs roughly $35,000 a year, provided by the state of Florida and Department of Health.
“The rest of the money comes from private funding from other organizations, companies and businesses in the South Florida area who believes so much in the need this team that they are willing to put dollars on the table to help find more equipments and sustain the team for training and quick responses.” Almaguer said.
Their community partners are Baptist Health South Florida, the Batchelor Foundation, Florida Blue, Leon Medical Centers and Nicklaus Children’s Hospital, according to an article on the FIU News website.
John A. Rock, founding dean of the Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine and the senior vice president for Health Affairs, expressed his satisfaction with the FIU FAST team’s ability to respond to victims promptly in the event of a serious catastrophe.
“We value the interest people have in the team; students interested can work through our FIU emergency response program or explore the Master of Arts in Disaster Management that we now offer.” Rock said.
With all of the equipment and support personnel that they have, the FIU Florida Advanced Surgical Transport group can respond to disasters and assure survival for many victims, not only in the FIU community and Miami but also all over Florida.
For more information on the FIU FAST team, contact the College of Medicine at 305-348-0570.
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