Stephen Doucette

    Mike Marsh came to my attention more than 10 years ago as a member of the California Tactical Casualty Care Committee. As an original voting member representing the San Mateo County Regional Tactical Medical Resources as well as a Field Supervisor for American Medical Response, Mike offered his expertise and knowledge as a Tactical Paramedic in helping draft California’s original Tactical Medicine Guidelines. The Guidelines ultimately received California Emergency Medical Services Authority (EMSA) and California Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) approval. The Guidelines are the definitive document for agencies throughout the State for creating tactical casualty care training programs that effect all First Responders (Police, Fire, and EMS). Mike’s extensive experience and knowledge of EMS operations in Northern California, helped create the foundation for the many local agencies throughout the region develop high quality Tactical Emergency Medical Support programs for their respective agencies. The California Tactical Medicine Guidelines have been subsequently revised and updated two additional times, and again Mike’s ongoing training, experience, and tenure helped to offer the necessary adjustments to the original guidelines as technology, standards, and protocols changed.

    Mike has shown himself to be humble and open to learning to not only better himself, but the organizations and ultimately the public he has served throughout the years. Mike was one of my first students in our newly developed and approved Tactical Medicine Course for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Special Enforcement Bureau. The course was a direct result of the guidelines developed by Mike and Tactical Casualty Committee at the state level. As a student, experienced paramedic, and tactical medic in Northern California, Mike brought that experience and leadership to our course and excelled as one of our students. Mike also helped teach in subsequent courses, offering his perspective and experience from the EMS side. This was quite effective in the education of new tactical medics, especially ones from law enforcement with no real practical experience in traditional EMS. Mike was still able to take away new learning points in the ever changing field of tactical medicine. Subsequent courses run by our agency saw many more students from Northern California as Mike referred them to us for training to become tactical medics. Over the years Mike has continued to evolve as a professional in the EMS field and tactical medicine, specifically.

   As an EMS consultant, Mike brings many years of experience from California EMS systems and the very relevant world of Tactical Medicine. Today EMS agencies must evolve and be prepared for the routine and the unfortunate more common mass casualty response – school shootings, as we have seen yet again recently in Michigan. EMS consultants must have both the relevant civilian non-tactical experience, the high-risk tactical emergency medical support experience to support local SWAT teams, and the necessary education / leadership / communication skills to be effective. The various agencies (EMS, Fire, and Police) are increasingly forced to work together much more than in years past; as a result EMS Consultants like Mike Marsh can effectively bridge the gaps between competing factions and interests to offer the level of service expected today from the citizens these systems ultimately serve and answer to.