Thanks to a new powered stairclimbing chair, Pasquotank-Camden Emergency Medical Services personnel will soon have another method for transporting patients up and down flights of stairs.
The Pasquotank Board of Commissioners approved a request by Pasquotank-Camden EMS Director Jerry Newell on Monday to allow the agency to purchase the new chair at a cost of $16,862. The money to purchase the chair will be dispersed from portions of a budgeted-but-vacant EMS position that has been frozen for the remainder of the 2024-25 fiscal year.
The new Xpedition Stair Chair will supplement other similar chairs that EMS currently uses to transport patients up and down stairs. The new chair will be stored aboard Pasquotank-Camden EMS’ quick-response vehicle, Newell said.
“That way it can be deployed to any scene — home, apartment complex — anywhere it may be needed to help somebody get up and down the steps, because this thing goes up, as well as down,” he said.
In his presentation to commissioners, Newell said that in the past year Pasquotank-Camden EMS has responded to a local apartment complex 16 times to assist patients on upper-level floors. The complex’s elevator has since been fixed, but during that period it was not working, he said.
Newell did not disclose the name of the apartment complex during his presentation, but according to him, EMS’ experience at the site partly prompted his agency to request the powered chair.
“Most of the calls there were on the fourth floor, meaning four or more EMS personnel manually assisted this patient down eight flights of steps to ground level,” he said. “Once discharged from the medical facility, EMS would return to assist this patient back up the stairs and into her apartment.”
Newell said that over the years, EMS also has responded to patients living in the seven-story Virginia Dare Apartments when that complex’s elevator was down temporarily.
The electronic stair chair also can be used to assist patients in homes that have stairs, he said.
“And they can be quite steep at times,” Newell said.
Newell showed a short presentation about the powered chair, which is made by Stryker and features a rechargeable battery, a weight capacity of 500 pounds, LED lights in the front and rear and is foldable for storage when not in use. The electronic chair operates with the use of two guide arms that power the chair up or down the stairs. Safety straps are used to secure the patient during movement while two human operators control the chair, with one guiding it from the front and the other from the back.
Newell also provided commissioners an update on the county’s new EMS station, which is being built on three acres at Sentara Health’s new medical campus on Halstead Boulevard Extended.
According to Newell, the new station, which is designated as EMS Station 50, will be built in the northeast corner of the campus and adjacent to Thunder Road. With the land information now in hand, EMS can move forward with seeking requests for qualifications for architects to design the facility. The RFQs will be sent out Aug. 1 and are expected to be returned by Sept. 13, according to Newell.
During commissioners’ finance committee meeting held prior to Monday’s board meeting, the commissioners honored Roger Ferrell for his decades of his service to the Nixonton Volunteer Fire Department. Ferrell spent 38 of those 41 years as station chief.
Robert Boyce, the county’s volunteer fire department coordinator, presented Ferrell with a plaque thanking him for his service.
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