Zebulon — Multiple members of Eastern Wake EMS, Knightdale Public Safety and the Wendell Fire Department were acknowledged at the Wake County EMS Cardiac Arrest Survivor Ceremony on May 21.

In addition to those who responded to calls in the Zebulon response area, emergency responders who answered calls on Knightdale Boulevard and on Town Square Road, in Wendell, were credited for the resuscitation of patients that were fully unconscious upon arrival.

Those recognized for calls in the Wendell district included EMS rescue workers V.J. Hilliard, Eddie Ross and Stacey Lamm, and Wendell firefighters Gregg Bryant, Chris Robertson, Joshua Alford.

Those recognized from Knightdale calls included EMS responders Rick Chauncey, John Fannin and Everett Mead, and Knightdale Public Safety personnel Tony Fraccola, Goley Boggs, Andrew Coley, Nathan Gant, Tim Guffey and Christopher Rozier.

The relationship between first responders and EMS rescue workers is a total joint effort.

In last week’s article on the call in the Zebulon response area, firefighter Joe Beasley said the first response teams could not have done their part without EMS workers to follow through.

EMS workers start IVs, intubates the patient, which provides a means through which to supply air, and administer life-saving drugs before transporting and providing care for patients en route to the hospital.

“What we have been able to do in this county comes down to the way we do CPR, which was implemented some 4 years ago — before the American Heart Association changed its guidelines,” EWEMS director Garland Tant said.

Wake County EMS Medical Director Dr. Brent Myers explained the process of collecting data and implementing new guidelines for compressions.

Data was recorded since January 2004, and in April of 2005 changes were made in the way cardiac arrests are handled, some of the changes very basic.

“Based on the data, we quit counting compressions, and began to just push constantly,” Myers said.

In April 2006 EMS added a device to helps with the ventilation and in October it revised cooling therapy techniques. Myers said the constant compressions and breathing aid help keep the heart functions on track and the hypothermia prevention safeguards from issues associated with the brain, so when a patient awakens, they are revived on all accounts.

Tant said he is very pleased with the work of those in the EMS organization, but that he has to give credit to the system as a whole.

“We are individuals but we act as one system. We train together, and that’s why we are as efficient as we are,” Tant said. Tant stressed the fire and public safety departments’ role as first responders.

“If not for them doing what they do in CPR and early defibrillation, we wouldn’t be able to save them. They deserve the credit,” Tant said. “We hope in the future we will be able to save more folks in all of Wake County with the changes in CPR, and hope to return more folks home that have cardiac episodes.”

EMS, public safety officers and firefighters may point at one another in giving credit for a job well-done, but it is the system working as a whole that gets the job done, as Myers reiterated.

“We have such committed first response and EMS response we generally have nine-12 responders to any one call,” Myers said. “That’s plenty of help to get the job done. With so many qualified responders on every call, we have the man power to do continuous compressions every time, without growing tired.” Why are the new guidelines so significant?

In 2005, prior to the changes, Wake EMS saw a code blue survivor rate of 12 percent. Once data was implemented from October 2006 to October 2007, there was more than a three-fold increase in survivor rate. The rate shifted from 12-38 percent. The current national average is 12-17 percent.

In 2007, this translated to 49 saves — almost one life saved per week.