Catch Those Who Fall

Medical Incident Response

The subject of this article is covered in two Safety Member Certification training modules, “Safety Team Fundamentals” and “Mass Trauma Emergency.” [1][2][3].

From the Bible

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? [Yet] not one of them shall fall on the ground without your Father (Matthew 10:29).

Make me to hear joy and gladness, That the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice (Psalm 51:8).

1 Kings 17:17-24 - The son of the widow in Zarephath became ill and either went into a coma or died. Elijah responded, and the son revived.

Introduction –

If you have ever had a medical emergency or have witnessed one, you can relate to the sense of urgency during the incident and the response. You may acknowledge that the response was good, or you may think it needed improvement.

If you were involved in the response, are you confident that it was what it should be, or do you wish you had known and done better? Either way, you may benefit from training, even if it is to make the good better, and the better best.

Personal Experience –

While working in restaurants, I had several injuries, mostly minor cuts, but a few requiring medical attention. I was incentivized to learn from the Boy Scout First Aid book Dad gave me (the one he had as a teen), and kept a kit in my locker, becoming the First Aid person at work. Later on, in manufacturing, I was trained and certified in First Aid and CPR and served on safety committees.

In churches, I witnessed a few medical incidents. Here are three:

• During a service, a choir member tripped, fell, and broke her leg.
• In a Sunday School class, a woman had an A-Fib incident.
• During a worship service, a mother was taking her teen daughter out when the girl collapsed in the aisle.

In each church incident, there was an immediate response by persons present who were trained in medical response.

Medical Emergencies in Church –

Church injuries from violence are more likely to make the news than injuries not related to violence, but medical emergencies unrelated to violence are many times more common. Gunshot and stabbing wounds are outnumbered by trips & falls, and by heart attacks. Add strokes, allergic reactions, burns, playground accidents, vehicular injuries, hypothermia, heat exhaustion, etc.

We tend to think of children and the elderly as more prone to injuries and medical incidents. However, these can occur in any age group or demographic category (socio-economic, ethnic, racial, etc.). We need to be ready to respond to a variety of medical emergencies. Considering the time it takes to call 9-1-1, then for EMTs to get here, we will be the first responders.

Ready to Respond –

Being ready to respond means recognizing a medical incident, knowing how to respond, being equipped to respond, and coordinating with others.

Recognition:

Sometimes the nature of the medical emergency is not immediately obvious. Here’s a hypothetical example:

Sue Brown falls in the foyer after the service and she can’t get up. How we should help her depends on why she fell. Find out a few things before we try to help her get up:

• Is she conscious?
• Did she slip or trip on something? In that case we look for injuries:
• Is there any bleeding?
• Are broken bones or a sprain suspected?
• Check for evidence of spinal injuries.
• Does she have a concussion?
• Did a medical condition or episode make her fall? In that case we care for her according to the underlying condition.
• Check her pulse and breathing to see whether it may be a heart attack. If you suspect that, be ready to use CPR or the AED.
• Look for signs of a stroke, such as slurred speech, weak eye, lopsided mouth, numbness or immobility on one side, etc.
• Is she an epileptic?
• Is she dehydrated?
• How about anaphylaxis or a medication reaction?

Someone might not fall, but show signs of a medical condition or be injured yet remain on their feet. They might tell you of an injury, such as a sprain.

The way a person walks or stands may or may not indicate a medical condition. Look for indications of heart distress, stroke, etc. Maybe someone is choking. By and large, be alert to signs that someone may need a medical response.

Knowledge:

What if Bob slips and falls, hitting his head? What if Mary is dizzy? What if Joe cuts his arm on broken glass? Would you know what to do?

Here is where training really matters. Sheepdog Church Security Academy’s training module “Mass Trauma Emergency” trains us how to respond when several persons are injured in one incident. A lot of this has to do with coordination, communication, and controlling the scene. [3].

This is to go hand-in-hand with training in the individual skills: First Aid, CPR, and AED use. Safety Team Members, ushers, and greeters need classes or individual training in these skills. Even better is to have several members of the congregation with these skills.

Although this training can be done online, in-person training (usually in small classes) is better, since it involves being able to ask questions and to actually practice the skills with expert coaching. This teaches the nerves and muscles as well as the head. It also conditions us to focus on the treatment even when the scene may be gross or distracting.

National organizations that hold classes include the American Red Cross, the American Heart Association, and the National Safety Council. [4][5][6].

The National Safety Council usually trains employees of businesses and of public agencies, such as police and fire departments. It is geared to OSHA requirements to have enough employees trained in medical response, especially First Aid, CPR, and AED use. If your church has many employees, it may use it to qualify employees and also train volunteers.

Equipped:

We need certain equipment and supplies for medical responses to treat cuts, wounds, and burns. We also need airway respiration tubes, face shields, shears, and AEDs, as well as kits and cabinets for these items. Two recommended sources for these are Sheepdog Church Security Academy’s Amazon store, Church Safety and Security Aids and Equipment Ideas, and Mountain Man Medical. [7][8].

What items are needed?

First, we need places to hold medical response supplies until they are needed. These include:

First Aid Cabinet – attached to a wall, it can hold numerous items. These can be accessed for an injury. However, the responder will have to walk to the cabinet or send someone to get the items. Three places are generally recommended for placing a First Aid cabinet:

• An office close to the vestibule/lobby/foyer,
• The kitchen,
• The gym (if you have one).

Other locations could be

• The equipment building next to the ballfield or picnic pavilion,
• The vehicle garage or outdoor maintenance shop,
• A playground attendant’s station.

These locations make the First Aid items accessible to those working there even when a safety team or medical response team member is elsewhere in the building or on the campus.

The primary First Aid cabinet can be used to resupply individual First Aid Kits (IFAKs) after a team member has responded to an incident. Therefore, it should be large enough for your church.

Medical Response Kit Bag – This is an immediate grab for multiple injuries. Besides holding supplies for multiple injuries, it can hold items that won’t fit into an IFAK, such as chest seals and a rescue blanket. There is one in the SCSA Amazon store: the Ergodyne Arsenal 5215 Large Medic First Responder Trauma Duffel Bag, and on Mountain Man Medical the Mass Trauma Kit (created in collaboration with Kris Moloney). [9][10].

IFAKs – Ideally, every member of the Safety Team and the Medical Response Team should carry an IFAK while on duty. It could be picked up when the member picks up a radio to start the shift. Mountain Man Medical carries the Sheepdog Belt IFAK.[11].

Coordination:

With any team, coordination is a key to success. It keeps us from crowding one place while leaving other places and tasks unattended.

In the church or at a church-related event, clear communication is vital to efficient coordination during any medical emergency. Practice and use church safety communication protocols. For example:

Tom. To team. Code Blue, upper hallway, near Room 205. Man collapsed in hall. No pulse. Starting CPR. Over.

Director. Tom, I’m calling 9-1-1. Bill, take the AED to upper hall by Room 205. Jack, Meet EMTs at the door. Take them to upper hall by Room 205. Over.

Jack. Director, Heading to door. Over.

Bill. Director, I have the AED and will be there. Over

This is easier with an earpiece that has a mic boom, like what the pastor uses. You don’t have to hold the radio to talk.

Emergency Services Communication,

Also learn to communicate with emergency services. First, know how to talk with a 9-1-1 dispatcher. Give them the name and address of the facility (the church, a park, a rented hall, etc.), the location within the facility, the kind of injuries or medical incident, how many patients, etc. Some of this may be used for the responder’s Critical Incident Map. [12].

The fire department or medical response service may call for more information. Know how to talk with them, answering any questions they have about the location, the situation, the victim’s condition, and how the team is responding.

Coordination Rehearsals,

Coordination in medical emergencies works better when every Safety Team member and Medical Response Team member knows not only what to do, but what roles to fulfill. The real advantage of a medical response drill is learning to work together effectively.

A drill should cover more than one scenario. Each scenario would be a different emergency and/or a different mix of responders. By rotating the responders in a drill, they learn to adjust to their parts of whatever response it is. It’s not like, “What do we do with John not here?” Face it, we do not have the same mix of team members every time there is an emergency.

Communication is a key to coordination, with the team leader for that service or event guiding the others over the radio. How it works in an emergency depends on who is where, as in the sample radio interchange above. Use the radios in drills. Begin each exercise in the drill with members positioned where they might be during a medical emergency, and have them respond from there. If the location of the incident varies from scenario to scenario, that makes the drill more realistic.

By the way, don’t neglect skill drills. We need both kinds.

Conclusion –

When a medical emergency happens at church, we need to be ready to respond effectively.

References –

1. Kris Moloney, Safety Member Certification V5, Sheepdog Church Security Academy, 2025 [https://sheepdog-church-security.thinkific.com/courses/safety-member-certification-v5-2025].
2. Kris Moloney, “Safety Team Fundamentals V5,” Safety Member Certification V5, Sheepdog Church Security Academy, 2025 [https://sheepdog-church-security.thinkific.com/courses/Safety-Member-Fundamentals-V5].
3. Kris Moloney, “Mass Trauma Emergency,” Safety Member Certification V5, Sheepdog Church Security Academy, 2023 [https://sheepdog-church-security.thinkific.com/courses/mass-trauma-emergency].
4. American Red Cross, "Find a Class" [https://www.redcross.org/take-a-class].
5. American Heart Association, "CPR & First Aid Training Classes" [https://www.heart.org/en/cpr].
6. National Safety Council, “Learn First Aid from the Workplace Safety Experts” [https://www.nsc.org/safety-training/first-aid/first-aid-cpr-and-aed-courses].
7. Kris Moloney (instructor), Sheepdog Church Security Academy / Church Safety and Security Aids and Equipment Ideas, Amazon [https://www.amazon.com/shop/instructor_moloney/list/1ERD68BB0JGWR?ref_=aip_sf_list_spv_ofs_mixed_d&ccs_id=0b84ef58-c7a6-46ed-b00d-98516e610399].
8. Mountain Man Medical [https://www.mountainmanmedical.com/].
9. Ergodyne Arsenal 5215 Large Medic First Responder Trauma Duffel Bag with Shoulder Strap, Sheepdog Church Security Academy / Church Safety and Security Aids and Equipment Ideas, Amazon [https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001AYGFO0?linkCode=ssc&tag=onamzsafetyeq-20&creativeASIN=B001AYGFO0&asc_item-id=amzn1.ideas.1ERD68BB0JGWR&ref_=aip_sf_list_spv_ofs_mixed_d_asin&th=1].
10. The Mass Casualty Trauma Kit, Mountain Man Medical [https://www.mountainmanmedical.com/product/the-mass-casualty-trauma-kit/?aid=18].
11. Sheepdog Belt IFAK, Mountain Man Medical [https://www.mountainmanmedical.com/product/sheepdog-belt-ifak/?aid=18].
12. CRG Team, “Critical Incident Mapping™ Solutions for Churches,” Critical Response Group [https://www.crgplans.com/places-of-worship/].