By Cathy StovellIf you have a heart attack or an accident you know an ambulance can be called and you can count on it to come and get you. That’s not the case all over the world. In Bermuda, Emergency Medical Technicians are an important segment of the Island’s emergency services. They are a part of the Emergency Department of the hospital and can be credited with saving many lives.EMTs are the ambulance team. They drive them and are also emergency medics.On average they attend 5,000 calls a year. So far this year they’ve attended 1,778 calls, 1,545 of them emergencies.Exactly who travels in the ambulance to an emergency scene is dependent on the type of emergency.According to Dr Rosyln Bascombe, Director of Emergency, two EMTs usually respond in the ambulance to most emergency calls.“One could be an EMT-B and one could be an EMT-I,” she said. She said a nurse may join the team if the call is known to be a CPR in progress, an unresponsive road traffic collision or an infant in cardiac arrest or seizure.Nurses also form part of the ambulance crew when an ambulance transports a patient to the airport for a medical evacuation.Doctors don’t often attend calls but a physician is part of the ambulance team in drowning calls, and in CPR calls at the Mid Atlantic Wellness Institute.