By Allison White
Eureka Times Standard
HUMBOLDT, Calif. — A local grant fund has been used to improve cardiac evaluation equipment in ambulances countywide that could save lives, the American Heart Association announced on Wednesday.
The $100,000 grant from the Orvamae Emmerson Endowment Fund of the Humboldt Area Foundation provided four new 12-lead electrocardiogram machines for Emergency Medical System ambulances and the training for staff to use the devices, said North Coast EMS Executive Director Larry Karsteadt.
Both Arcata and City Ambulance received two new machines, and the service contracts for Hoopa and Star Ambulance were renewed.
“It will advance a paramedic’s ability substantially to evaluate a patient with a cardiac condition,” Karsteadt said.
The 12-lead ECGs provide more specific and detailed information to paramedics on scene to determine a person’s cardiac condition.
If a patient is suffering from a severe heart attack where blood flow is blocked, also called a ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction or STEMI, paramedics can identify it faster, take the patient to the hospital and up their chances of survival greatly, Karsteadt said.
The American Heart Association’s Mission: Lifeline helped bring together stakeholders in the area to make this possible, said Selinda Shontz, vice president of state health alliances for AHA. Part of the grant funding went toward an educational outreach program to teach residents to recognize the first symptoms of a heart attack and to call 911.
Shontz said there is a critical time frame that heart attack patients have to receive treatment. By providing specific details of the patient’s condition to paramedics, the new 12-lead ECGs can speed delivery of proper treatment.
“Time is of the essence, no matter,” Shontz said.
The Orvamae Emmerson Endowment Fund annually provides grants of about $250,000, said Heather Hostler, program officer for the Humboldt Area Foundation. It was noted in Arcata resident Orvamae Emmerson’s trust after she died that a fund be created to go toward certain organizations and causes, including the Arcata Fire and Police departments and cardiac and heart care, Hostler said.
“Those were the organizations dear to her heart,” she said.
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