By Heather May
The Salt Lake Tribune
SOUTH JORDAN, Utah — Paramedics here have added a tool to better help cardiac arrest patients before they get to the hospital.
They can now induce hypothermia to prevent brain damage and increase chances of survival.
Many hospitals along the Wasatch Front already do this in their intensive care units. South Jordan Fire Department is the first to use it outside the hospital, but probably not the last. Battalion Chief Wayne Edginton said he is providing his guidelines to other fire departments in Salt Lake County.
The fire department and Jordan Valley Medical Center held a news conference Thursday to highlight how they work together to provide better care for heart attack and cardiac arrest patients.
South Jordan resident Thomas Anderson credits the team approach for saving his life. The 51-year-old’s heart stopped beating Nov. 4, two days after the fire department approved the use of therapeutic hypothermia.
A team of four paramedics arrived within two minutes, coincidentally just after taking a recertification test on cardiac arrest. They continued the cardiopulmonary resuscitation that Anderson’s wife, Debra, began with the help of the 911 dispatcher, secured an airway with a tube in his trachea, started his heart twice with a defibrillator, and started to cool down his body.
They brought his internal body temperature down to between 89.6 to 93.2 degrees Fahrenheit by administering two liters of cold saline. Meanwhile, Jordan Valley Medical Center, which has been working with the fire department for three years to integrate medical staff and standardize care, was preparing the catheterization lab.
Had Anderson’s heart stopped a week earlier, the hospital would have induced hypothermia in him but not for another two hours, Edginton said.
That might have been good enough to protect Anderson’s brain function, but maybe not, he said.
Any edge against cardiac arrest is critical: It happens to 300,000 adults a year and few survive when it occurs outside of a hospital. The restored blood flow can cause brain damage because of the body’s inflammatory immune responses. Therapeutic hypothermia minimizes the problem and has been shown to reduce death and brain damage. The American Heart Association recommends its use in hospitals for certain cardiac arrest patients.
Anderson said he hasn’t experienced any side effects, besides fatigue.
“Everything they [did] saved me from future complications. I’m so thankful,” Anderson said.
Edginton said it costs $1,500 to buy the equipment necessary.
“To have an outcome like this,” he said, motioning to Anderson, "[that cost] is pretty darn cheap,” he said.
Copyright 2009 The Salt Lake Tribune