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Ambulances assigned to the east side of Baltimore County will soon be equipped with technology that can speed up how quickly patients receive potentially life-saving intervention and which officials hope will help save the lives of heart attack victims.
Franklin Square Hospital Center has purchased 12 LIFENET electrocardiogram (EKG) transmission devices and on Thursday, November 5th, hospital officials are announcing the donation of this equipment, valued at just about $4,000, to the Baltimore County Fire Department.
Physicians typically do not see the vital information contained in a patient's EKG until he or she gets to the hospital. Using these devices, which affix to emergency medical providers' cardiac monitors, paramedics can transmit the patient's EKG from the incident scene to a hospital equipped to perform primary angioplasty. Doctors can examine the EKG and alert the catheterization team prior to the patients' arrival at the hospital.
This early notification can make a dramatic difference in the time a patient receives potentially life-saving intervention. When a patient suffers a heart attack, survival often depends on how fast he or she receives treatment, said Kyrle Preis III, BCoFD director of emergency medical services. St. Joseph Medical Center last year donated 15 similar devices to BCoFD which have already proven effective in reducing intervention time.
“The bottom line is that we're reducing the patient's door-to-balloon time, the time it takes to get life-saving circulation to the area of the heart that has been blocked," Preis said.
The new devices will be carried on medic units from the Essex, Middle River, Eastview, Golden Ring, Chase and Back River Neck career fire stations and on volunteer medic units from White Marsh, Rosedale, Kingsville, and Middle River Volunteer Ambulance-Rescue.
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