Inside the Collier County Sheriff's Office Professional Development Center in downtown Naples Tuesday morning, numerous members of the department trained to provide lifesaving care to protect citizens of the county in the event of an emergency.
"It started as simple first aid, and then it evolved into more complex, basic life-support programs. Then, our casualty care program is really the cornerstone of some of that, where it's more trauma-focused than basic life-support-focused," said Dr. John Ianni, a physical therapist who serves as the instructor of the course.
The course is taught weekly for all members of the sheriff's office, and nearly 1,000 employees have received information from the training over the course of 2024, according to CCSO. The program, which is modeled after military training for combat injuries, focuses on medical treatment that can be provided prior to emergency medical services' arrival on the scene. Those tactics include, but are not limited to:
- Tourniquet application
- CPR
- Automatic external defibrillator use
- Stopping/plugging large, bleeding wounds
"So, the first responders that we have in the agency, they're truly the first people on scene most of the times, and they have to have that ability to act decisively and sharply and quickly at a moment's notice. People are going to be relying on them to render that aid first and foremost before anybody else shows up," said Ianni.
There are numerous examples of this training leading to lifesaving rescues, according to the sheriff's office. One of those is the rescue conducted by Cpl. Richard Jacobs, who used the course knowledge to provide care to Manuel Milanes, a good Samaritan who was shot in the chest during a domestic violence dispute in Ave Maria in late August.
"So, without that training, without, like, any combat training or anything like that, I would not have been able to do what I did. Thanks to the training here, I was able to stop the bleed ... Eventually, your training kicks in, and you're like, 'Alright. This is what I got to do to help save this man's life,'" said Jacobs.
The sheriff's office tells NBC2 that more than 100 courses have already been completed this year.