New EMS Techniques Saving Lives

By BJ Austin, KERA News

Dallas, TX –

Many Dallas-Fort Worth paramedics have been using new methods and equipment to treat cardiac arrest and trauma patients. And, doctors say the field trials have saved lives. KERA's BJ Austin says that success has prompted the National Institutes of Health to renew federal funding for six more years.

The program is called the Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium: seven U.S. major metropolitan areas, plus three in Canada. Paramedics in the program are testing new treatment protocols and equipment. Dr. Ron Anderson, CEO of Parkland Hospital, says cutting edge medicine won't help if the patient can't get to the hospital alive.

Anderson: We need the paramedics equipped, the firefighters equipped the way they should be. We need to pay attention to the science of pre-hospital care.

The first responders in nearly two dozen DFW cities were trained in new methods and machines. One helps regulate airflow during CPR, avoiding a negative over-inflation of the lungs.

Last year, the city of Dallas cardiac arrest survival rate was 50% higher than in 2006. The average Dallas survival rate is 7%, up from 4. Irving's is 11% after the first field trials. Carrollton nearly quadrupled its survival rate - now at 15%.

The program is expected to result in new recommendations for first responders, worldwide.

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