By Rick Ruggles
Omaha World-Herald
OMAHA, Neb. — Many Omaha-area ambulance squads have access to technology that can convey information to emergency rooms and ultimately minimize damage from a heart attack.
But medical providers said Wednesday that citizens must call 911 to benefit from that technology, called a “12-lead EKG” unit. Heart attack victims who drive themselves to the hospital lose valuable time that could be applied toward saving heart muscle from further damage, they said.
The 12-lead EKG system provides 12 views of the heart. That information then is sent to the emergency room by cell phone, and the cardiac staff can be alerted and ready to take the patient in for cardiac catheterization. That procedure opens blocked coronary arteries and prevents further damage to the heart.
Dr. Mike Dehning, an Immanuel Medical Center cardiologist, said the technology reduces by at least 10 minutes the time from arrival at the emergency room to cardiac catheterization.
Linda Jensen, emergency medical services coordinator at Immanuel, said the first local rescue squad in the area to obtain the technology was Bennington’s, three years ago. Fort Calhoun, Irvington, Ponca Hills and others have since installed the 12-lead system in their ambulances.
The Omaha Fire Department tried one out and put the system in all its ambulances about a year ago. In Omaha alone, more than 100 patients have benefited from the technology, said Dr. Joseph Stothert, medical director for the Omaha department.
Jensen said the Alegent Foundation funded early purchases of the units, and numerous local hospitals now participate in paying for them. The units cost about $20,000 apiece. Additional expenses come with training paramedics and emergency medical techs in how to use them.
The City of Papillion also announced Wednesday that it now has two 12-lead units for the Papillion Fire Department’s use.
Kirk Schmitt, chief of the Iowa Department of Public Health’s emergency medical services, said many Iowa communities have the units on their ambulances.
The American Heart Association and the Iowa Department of Public Health have formed a cardiac task force in part to determine which communities don’t have them and how to acquire them for those towns, Schmitt said.