The Tulsa State Fair wrapped up this weekend with fewer medical incidents being reported than in the past several years.
According to Tina Wells, EMSA vice president of marketing, paramedics responded to fewer medical incidents this year than they projected.
EMSA had five response teams — four on advanced life support (ALS)-equipped carts and one ALS bike team – at Expo Square during the run of the fair.
Paramedics had expected to care for at least 200 patients suffering from a variety of ailments, which Wells said encompasses everything from scraped knees to serious heart and respiratory problems.
Instead, EMSA treated only 137 patients at the 2009 Tulsa State Fair and transported just 23 to hospitals for further care.
To put that in perspective, paramedics treated more than 200 patients during each of the previous fairs. There were 71 patients taken from the fair to the hospital in 2007, and 62 needed an ambulance transport in 2008.
