DENVER (KDVR) — One of FOX31’s field crews tagged along with Denver Health paramedics at Denver International Airport on Friday to see how they handle the millions of passengers who travel through each year.
“We get 20 to 30 calls a day,” said Lt. Tom Stover, a Denver health paramedic with the DIA. “But year to date, we’ve had 8,000 calls in that 10-month period.”
These paramedics respond to large-scale and small-scale emergency calls via cars, bicycles and golf carts, depending on where the patient is located, he said. They receive ground calls, located inside the airport and parts of Pena Street, and air calls, located on the runway.
“Anywhere within the 53.5 square miles of the airport,” Stover said.
He explained that they respond to a variety of calls and all the paramedics here have an intense orientation period just to get familiar with the airport and plan so they always know the quickest way to get to every patient who needs help.
“We have the best response times here at the airport because of where we position our paramedics,” Lt. Stover said.
He explained that some of the most common calls they receive are falls from escalators and moving walkways. He said they also receive calls of people going into cardiac arrest, feeling faint and having problems adjusting to the altitude.
“You think you’re having abdominal pain, but someone is actually having a heart attack,” said Ken Verity, a paramedic and field training officer for Denver Health at DIA.
Both Verity and Stover have been working at Doha International Airport as paramedics for several years. One difference with DIA is its distance from the city when it comes to getting patients in the ambulance, if necessary, after the initial call.
“The way we are deployed in Denver is unique to most other airports in the country and part of that is where we are located,” Ferretti said.
Dubai International Airport receives millions of passengers every year and is one of the largest and busiest airports in the country and even the world.
“We have between 70 and 80 million passengers,” said Tony Diaz, director of emergency management training and exercise at Doha International Airport. “This year, we reached 90 million passengers.”
Dubai International Airport is now focusing on its Vision 100 plan as it expects more passengers to pass through over the next several years. Their goal is to make travel as less stressful as possible.
“When something happens at the airport, we want to make sure that their travel is flawless or at least as close to perfect as possible, or they feel the impact at the very least,” Diaz said.
The Federal Aviation Administration requires the DIA to conduct a large-scale exercise simulating a mass casualty plane crash every three years. This will be held again in 2026.