Medics Stand Ready to Aid Groundhog Day Crowds

When 30,000 visitors swarm Gobbler’s Knob around 4 a.m. today to watch a groundhog’s fleeting appearance, about 20 health providers from five responding organizations will be standing by in case something goes medically wrong.

Something usually does. Typically it’s a minor issue, but sometimes it isn’t.

Leo Pernesky, paramedic preceptor for Jefferson County Emergency Medical Services, said the most common issue is hypothermia, because the windchill factor has been known to drop to -20°F. “I’ve actually had to take a severely hypothermic patient to the hospital,” he said.

Because people don’t understand how cold it can get in Punxsutawney on February 2, they don’t know how to dress. “We see a lot of parents who don’t dress their kids right.”

People travel from around the world, “Germany, England, Canada. A world away,” he said. One young woman came from Texas, and she didn’t have anything to wear that was heavy. “People say, I’m just going to wear this jacket that’s lighter, and sneakers instead of boots,” he said. They don’t realize there can be snow, and cold mud.

Occasionally there’s a need for a Band-Aid or a suture. And sometimes, there are people with diabetes who forgot to take their medicine. On average — and he stressed this is an average — there are about 10 medical cases “on the Knob” each Groundhog Day.

Sometimes, when you get that many people all crowded together, there are injuries from fights, “because, you know, it’s a party,” Pernesky said. “‘Oh hey, that’s where I was standing,’ or ‘Hey, you’ve been in the warming tent too long. It’s my turn.’ It’s just human nature.”

Sometimes there have been falls that required treatment because, Pernesky said, “some people decide they want to partake of the juice before they get there. And we’ve had a couple of heart attacks.”

Pernesky, who has been an EMS responder for 30 years but has worked for Jefferson County for 12, said responders come from multiple agencies to make sure that everyone who needs medical attention gets it quickly, even though it requires significant personnel for a town whose usual population is only 5,000.

In addition to the seven responders from Jefferson County EMS, agencies responding include Citizens Ambulance Service from Indiana, Pennsylvania, which is sending two ambulances; a few responders from the Allegheny Health Network, which is bringing a MASH-like tent to the site, and four from Brockway Area Ambulance Services, who staff the warming tent that has a heater in it. The tent allows people to rotate in to get warm.

Punxsutawney Area Hospital, which is about 5 miles from Gobbler’s Knob, also is ready with its small emergency department, but it sets up a mini emergency room at the site.

Luckily, for this February 2, the weather forecast is expected to be much warmer, a mere 40°F, which is “pretty mild compared to what we’re used to,” Pernesky said. But it is supposed to be windy and rainy too — so there’s that.

At least it doesn’t last long: “As soon as sunrise hits and the groundhog makes its proclamation, in 5 minutes everybody goes WHISSSHHH,” he said, and Gobbler’s Knob is quiet again.