Hazelwood City Council members unanimously approved the issuance of a proclamation declaring the week of May 19 through May 25 as \u201cEmergency Medical Services Week\u201d within the community.\u00a0 The City of Hazelwood is joining other local communities and medical personnel in publicizing safety and honoring the dedication of those who provide the day-to-day lifesaving services of medicine\u2019s \u201cfront line.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0In 1974, the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) was instrumental in getting President Gerald Ford to sign a proclamation declaring the week of November 3 to 10 as the first \u201cNational Emergency Medical Services Week.\u201d\u00a0 This annual observance continued for the next four years until it was reinstituted by ACEP in 1982 and moved to the month of September.<\/p>\n
In 1992, EMS Week was again moved to the third week in May.\u00a0 The rationale for this decision rested on the concern some had about having EMS Week right before Fire Prevention Week in October.\u00a0 They felt having both of them so close together hurt the effectiveness of each program. So EMS Week was moved to May.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s theme is \u201cEMS: One Mission. One Team.\u201d\u00a0 The purpose is to recognize the tremendous role that EMS practitioners make to improve the quality of health care in communities across the nation.\u00a0 The around-the-clock dedication to providing emergency care is evident with one statistic: more than 36 million patients were cared for by EMS professionals in 2011 alone.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe members of Hazelwood\u2019s emergency medical services team engage in thousands of hours of specialized training and continuing education to enhance their lifesaving skills,\u201d Hazelwood Fire Chief Dave Radel said.\u00a0 \u201cOur residents benefit daily from the knowledge and skills of these highly trained individuals who are on call at a moment\u2019s notice to perform extraordinary feats to save the life of another human being.\u201d<\/p>\n
Like many ambulance services in St. Louis County, Hazelwood Fire Department\u2019s ambulance 4127 runs hundreds of calls, many of which are life threatening.\u00a0 When a call for a possible heart attack is received, the\u00a0odds of a patient making it to the hospital in time to stop it has dramatically improved.\u00a0 A combination of the firefighter\/paramedics\u2019 exceptional EMS skills and their use of new, state-of-the-art EKG heart monitors can be identified as contributing factors, according to recent quality care checks performed by SSM DePaul Hospital\u2019s EMS specialists.<\/p>\n
At 9:43 a.m. on the morning of April 10, the HFD received an Emergency 911 call of a possible heart attack in process involving a 69-year-old patient.\u00a0 The crew of Ambulance 4127 responded to the scene, assessed the patient, attached the EKG heart monitor, and transmitted the monitor information to SSM DePaul\u2019s ER in just 15 minutes.\u00a0 This transmission was accomplished using the most sophisticated technology available to emergency medical services today.\u00a0 Mi-fi\/wi-fi technology surpasses even the recent Bluetooth equipment in speed and reliability.<\/p>\n
This rapid assessment by Hazelwood\u2019s firefighter\/paramedics in the field and the information transmitted to ER medical doctors made it possible for the hospital\u2019s cath lab to be activated well before the patient\u2019s arrival.\u00a0 Twenty-three minutes later, the patient was in the cath lab having balloon angioplasty and stents put in to open up a fully blocked artery, causing the heart attack to stop.<\/p>\n
SSM DePaul keeps track of \u201cdoor to balloon\u201d (D2B) times which; in this case was only 34 minutes.\u00a0 This means it only took them about a half-hour to arrive at the patient\u2019s door and transport him to the hospital where he was immediately taken into surgery.\u00a0 \u201cPrior to our capability with the new equipment, this time average was well over an hour.\u00a0 In the EMS field, this is referred to as the \u2018Golden Hour\u2019 and the major difference between life and death,\u201d Chief Radel noted.<\/p>\n
This is a clear demonstration of the outstanding service HFD firefighter\/paramedics can provide for local residents utilizing the technological capability of the new EKG heart monitors approved by City Council members last year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hazelwood City Council members unanimously approved the issuance of a proclamation declaring the week of May 19 through May 25 as \u201cEmergency Medical Services Week\u201d within the community.\u00a0 The City of Hazelwood is joining other local communities and medical personnel in publicizing safety and honoring the dedication of those who provide the day-to-day lifesaving services […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hazelwood","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n