Written by Rebecca Gimenez
In 1993, Dr. Tomas Gimenez was enjoying teaching endocrinology, theriogenology and doing equine research in horse reproduction and nutrition at Clemson University in Clemson, SC. But he had seen what happened to GA, SC and NC when hurricanes hit the state, and was concerned about the minimal level of disaster preparedness of most horse and cattle owners that he knew personally. Very few took the threat seriously, and even fewer had evacuation plans for their animals and family. That year, he attended the second International Conference on Large Animal Rescue in California – which was the brainchild of Dr. Richard (Dick) Mansmann. The few people around the world who were interested in this specialty area were there including disaster planners, responders and emergency field animal rescuers. He had found a group of people who took it seriously, and when he returned he began learning and asking questions around his home state to determine the level of communication, response infrastructure and disaster planning for large animals. He found there to be minimal resources and coordination – similar to many other areas of the nation.
By 1995, Dr. Gimenez was working with the visionary Dr. Venaye Reece at the State Veterinarian’s office in SC to offer small workshops and speaking about preparedness for veterinarians, plus offering some of the information that he had collected from around the world as to methods for technical emergency rescue. Much of that information was wives-tales, recklessly employed, or had rarely been tested in real incidents, and thus Dr. Gimenez enlisted the assistance of some of his students at Clemson to research workable, simple and reliable methods of manipulation of large animals. (A few years later, he would marry Dr. Rebecca Bott, who was interested primarily in the behavioral responses of horses and taught their famed demonstration animals to lie down, to allow themselves to be lifted, and to cooperate for many simulated rescue training events as well as research for better equipment and techniques.)
In 1997, they were asked to put on a 1 day training event in Monk’s Corner, SC with the Charleston Area Rescue Squad and Cpt. Shawn Jones; after a morning orientation via powerpoint lecture, the hands-on training events that day included overturning and cutting up a horse trailer, lifting a horse in an Anderson Sling, basic manipulation of a recumbent horse, and evaluation of various appliances that could be used on large animals. Training in Technical Large Animal Emergency Rescue was born! Of special note was a fundamental change in perspective: the fire service’s involvement and needs for this information began to drive the evolution of new ideas and procedures to intertwine with existing Incident Command System architecture and fit with FEMA’s animal rescue doctrine. By 1999, when the Gimenez’s traveled to California to meet Captain John and Debra Fox of Felton Fire District and the West Coast experts in Large Animal Rescue, they were convinced that reaching the emergency responders who actually answered the 911 calls and saw these incidents on a regular basis was crucial.
In the early days, the course was 1, then quickly 2, days of awareness level information with minimal hands-on and a few demonstrations. By 2003, there was enough material for a 3 day course to be offered at the operational level for a limited number of hands-on participants, and of course there were always many auditors observing. Mud rescue of live horses, overturn and stabilization of a full size trailer, a night Search & Rescue operation capped with strapping a live (sedated) horse to a Rescue Glide, manipulation of live recumbent horses and use of a floatation device on a live animal became de rigueur for the course. USRider, Inc. became the philanthropic partner for the training events, sponsoring numerous courses, training events, educational material and supporting research into TLAER / LAR via their Leg Up Fund, and via curriculum offerings at Eastern Kentucky University. Veterinary schools began to ask for training for their students and faculty members, people of numerous professional disciplines (fire, heavy rescue, EMS, veterinarians, animal control, etc.) were starting to recognize this specialty area of rescue for what it was: dangerous, difficult, and challenging.
Dr. Tomas Gimenez’s contributions to the field are innumerable, but in particular there are pieces of equipment (Nicopolous Needle, Becker Vertical Lift Web Sling, Equine Floatation Device, Carabiner Extender Poles, Schwartz Air / Water Mud Injectors, etc.) that he researched and designed with many collaborators (and is too humble to accept naming some of them after himself). He has kept the local welding shop very busy with various generations of improvements of the equipment.
Early on he saw the value of new methodologies and techniques (Widener Forward Assist configuration, Hampshire Slip, Becker Sling, etc.) and promoted their use after doing the research to prove that they worked better than previous generations of equipment. He customized the A-Frame proposed by Norco Fire Rescue to allow vertical lift of large animals; improved the design of several pieces of equipment used for these large patients (modified the early Rescue Glide, improved the Santa Barbara and Becker Slings, adopted and improved the fire hose floatation device proposed by Lexington Fire, supported the use of rope / webbing anchors and mechanical advantage for moving large animal victims, and promulgated the use of shoring and extrication techniques for confined space, trench, and motor vehicle accidents with large animals.
Most importantly, he is responsible for bringing all these TLAER techniques, tactics and procedures under the umbrella of legitimate rescue organizations by aligning the training with that of normal fire/rescue maneuver (based on the ideas of CPT John Fox in Felton, CA) and encouraging the use of the Incident Command System to coordinate on-scene operations. No longer is large animal rescue seen by the fire service as a bunch of rickey-rescue do-gooders – but as a legitimate heavy rescue specialty.
In 2008, Wiley-Blackwell published a textbook written by the Gimenez’s and their collaboration team with editing from Dr. Kimberly May at AVMA. Now it is possible for those who cannot attend a course to get the detailed information and apply it immediately.
This is his legacy.