STEMI and Monitor Parts

First STEMI sent via cell phone to UAMS last night by Medics Tom Ford and Richard Kirchner. The crew responded to a chest pain call. They carried in their monitor and correctly identified a STEMI. Their scene time was 10 minutes, after transport to the ER the patient went from door of ER to Cath lab 11 minutes! Total time from onset to Cath Lab was 1 hour and 3 minutes. Patient got 2 STINTS and will probably go home on Wednesday.

Steven Davis ran on a STEMI this morning. Again carried in his equipment, correctly identified the problem. Was near BMMC so he called them and related the problem. The Staff at Baptist Spring Hill was waiting for the crew. This early call caused the PT to go to the CATH Lab a lot faster. PT got 2 STINTS and should be released soon.

Robert Darr had a C/P patient that he kept the monitor on. The patient developed V-Tach in front of him. He was able to capture this event as well as the following NSR rhythm after Lidocaine.

These are great saves that have a few things in common.
1. The crews had their equipment with them. (all of it, no missing parts)
2. The crew did a great job at recognizing the problem and getting the necessary treatment and notifications made.


Monitor Equipment
Several years ago I was on a cardiac arrest at a biker bar. When we went to shock the patient the monitor would not shock. We were lucky and was able to get another truck to come by with its monitor by the time we made it out to our ambulance. This is one of the reasons that MEMS spends the extra money to give you a back up plan on the cardiac monitor. You have hands free and paddles. However we are finding that many crews are taking off the paddles. May I remind you,
1. They are a back up to the hands free.
2. They cost 300.00 each
3. Laying them on the shelf causes them to become scratched. If scratched bad enough, they are ruined.

Remedy- Always carry all parts of your monitor with you. We cannot, and must not allow the paddles to be taken off. We must also make sure that all parts of the 12 lead are accounted for.
To my utter amazement, several of the trucks are missing the v leads to the monitor. Why and How???
Please help me stay after this problem. As soon as you notice missing equipment report it!! We want to continue to have great success stories like the ones above.

Greg