Miami-Dade Fire Rescue’s (MDFR) Advanced Life Support (ALS) Team came in first place at the 2013 Bill Shearer International ALS competition held on July 19 in Orlando.
This competition is considered to be the “Super Bowl” of the EMS competition season. MDFR’s ALS team consists of Firefighters Michael Ung, Alex Lozano and Jorge Anzardo.
The 2013 competition presented a challenging emergency involving a scenario with multiple pediatric trauma patients. MDFR went on to perform the highest standards and came out victorious among the more than 36 teams competing.
ALS competitions require a high level of knowledge and clinical accuracy for teams to score high marks. The teams must also be extraordinarily fast at completing their skills to meet the demanding benchmarks. Many of the specialized skills they develop and learn in competition are brought back to Miami-Dade County, and used in everyday operations in order to improve the service provided to the community.