Two ambulances in the Park City area are now equipped with 12-lead electrocardiogram monitors. Soon all four Park City Fire District ambulances will have the high-tech life-saving devices.
Ambulances at stations in Park Meadows and Pinebrook have the heart machines aboard, paramedic Sean Briley said.
Paramedics use the 12-lead EKG monitors when determining whether a patient may be having a heart attack.
“We used to have three leads,” Briley said.
The leads are electrodes that paramedics attach to the body. Three leads allowed medics to only view one area of the chest when trying to determine if a patient was having a heart attack.
“This 12-lead EKG, it gives us about 12 views,” Briley said. “It gives us a more comprehensive picture of the heart Instead of in one place like we used to, we can see them in 12 places.”
Previously in Summit County 12-lead EKG testing needed to be performed in the hospital emergency room.
Many patients were then taken to a cardiac catheterization lab in Salt Lake City because the hospital and clinics in the Park City area are not equipped to treat major heart attacks, Briley said.
The delay decreased the chances for survival for some people.
“That’s why, more than any other agency, we need this service,” Briley said. “We’re talking 30 minutes we’ve saved and in those 30 minutes that (heart) muscle is dying.”
A heart attack happens when vessels supplying blood to the heart become blocked, which prevents the flow of oxygen and kills the muscle.
“You have several vessels supplying the heart muscle with blood and nutrients and a block could occur anywhere,” Briley said. “It’s life altering if you have a massive one that kills a lot of muscle.”
But many people survive heart attacks when problems are detected quickly. A 12-lead EKG aboard an ambulance can allow a patient suffering a heart attack to bypass the emergency room and be immediately taken to the cardiac lab.
“That’s where it is making a difference,” Briley said. “I have no doubt it will end up helping people.”
According to Park City Fire District Capt. Isaac Morfin, “[12-lead EKGs] are going to give us the ability to make those decisions right there on scene rather than going to the hospital.”
“It gives us definitive direction,” Morfin said.
The equipment also allows EKGs to be transmitted electronically to hospital physicians who will begin examining the tests before patients arrive at the lab.
Paramedics and emergency medical technicians in the Park City area have completed advanced training in lead placement, transmission, cardiac care and recognizing heart attacks, according to Bob Zanetti, the interim fire chief in Park City.
“This is a big deal,” Zanetti said. “Heart disease is still the No. 1 killer among Americans so this advance and this equipment is going to save lives.”
He said the costs of purchasing the new gear and upgrading existing equipment to meet 12-lead specifications were offset by grants from the Utah Hospital Association and Utah Bureau of EMS.
“The timing was right for us,” Zanetti said. “The advances in technology and this 12-lead specific grant funding created a valuable opportunity for Park City Fire to purchase new equipment, train our paramedics and finally implement this essential service for the community.”
The heart monitors have been online in ambulances in the Park City area for about a month.
“It’s a big push in the state of Utah and other states around the country,” Zanetti said. “Research shows that they’re having success with this stuff.”