COLORADO SPRINGS – AMR technicians are getting a new tool to help them deal with trauma.
That tool, his name is Dex, a five and a half-months-old Goldendoodle currently going through therapy dog training.
“He’s like a little child right now, but he is slowly learning,” said Jon Webb, American Medical Response.
Dex’s main goal will be to help crews unwind on a daily basis, whether they just had a bad day, or had to deal with something traumatic like a mass casualty event. Webb tells us that AMR starting bringing in therapy dogs in 2016, but it was after the mass shooting in Las Vegas in 2017 when they learned just how important the dogs could be for crews.
“[They] just provided just a huge impact to the crews there, that you know, were witness to the horrific events,” he said.
He is the first AMR therapy dog in Colorado Springs and he’s already a pretty popular part of the team, with most workers coming in and greeting him first thing in the morning.
“This starts their day off just on a right foot, great path,” Webb said.
Dex is short for dextrose, a medication that is often given to diabetics.
