Island volunteers provide medical support

By MAY GERSTLE and CAROL IRELAND-McCLEAN

For The Beachcomber

We recently caught up with Dr. Michael and Nancy Kappelman, a busy couple who volunteer for Vashon’s Medical Reserve Corps (MRC), the medical component of VashonBePrepared.

This local community-based organization is comprised of medical volunteers who agree to donate their time to prepare for and respond to emergencies and who supplement Vashon’s existing local emergency and health resources.

The Kappelmans, a physician-nurse team with two active daughters, find time to give back to their community in many different ways, including the MRC. We asked them about their involvement and here’s what we learned.

“By being involved with Vashon Be Prepared we realized that we, as a family, needed to do more to prepare ourselves,” the couple said in a written statement. “What would we do if one or more of us were off the Island when a major earthquake hit? Have we stored enough water? How soon could we get home, and how would we contact one another? How could we help our neighbors? Additionally, how would we help out professionally?”

They told us that serving in the Medical Corps gave them a foundation to help out if needed.

They know where they would go and what they might be asked to do. Both offered great ideas about what else is needed for our trauma center and field hospital.

Their suggestions will help medical volunteers know what to do in various emergency situations.

One such idea is to have, at the primary treatment locations, written protocols for handling major problems that most medical volunteers would seldom have encountered.

The Vashon Medical Reserve Corps hopes Islanders will join the Kappelmans and other medical volunteers from 8:45 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 10, at the Penny Farcy Memorial Training Center for training and to learn what roles medical volunteers can play in the community.

For more information, call MRC coordinator Carol Ireland-McLean at 463-1400.

— May Gerstle and Carol Ireland-McClean are active in Vashon’s emergency preparedness efforts.

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