Murrieta Fire Chief: New Equipment and Technology Will Save Lives

Several months ago, the Murrieta Fire Department received a Federal Grant to purchase new Heart Monitors. This state-of-the-art equipment will be placed in service starting this week on all (MFD) fire trucks.  The new equipment allows MFD’s paramedics to get a more comprehensive look at the heart of someone who is experiencing a heart attack. This new technology also provides for the ability to send a reading of the heart’s activity directly to the hospital’s emergency room from the heart attack victim’s location. This new and higher level of care is essential to improving the chances of surviving a serious heart attack.

This new system is an advanced tool to replace our outdated system. This new system can monitor your heart, respiratory status and warn MFD paramedics of impending deterioration, so we can administer life saving medications or shocks. The new system can record accurate 12 lead electrocardiograms (EKGs) and transmit them immediately and directly to a physician at a specialized heart center that will allow our paramedics to accompany the patient straight into a heart center’s surgery suite or heart catheterization lab, resulting in life saving care.

The new Heart Monitors, LifePack-15’s, were 80% funded through a federally funded Fire Act Grant; the 11 new monitors cost a total of $376,000 with only a 20% match coming from MFD. The procurement of this grant is a solid example of MFD’s efforts to maintain service delivery with decreasing revenues.  The previous monitors were due for replacement and MFD aggressively pursued alternative funding sources to provide for this equipment replacement program.

Heart Attack Statistics

• About 50% of deaths occur within one hour of the heart attack -- outside a hospital.
• Studies show the most common time for a heart attack to occur is Monday morning. Saturday morning ranks second. Another common time is during the early morning hours, when blood platelets are stickier.
• Chewing an uncoated aspirin right away, at the first sign of chest discomfort or distress, can reduce the amount of damage to the heart muscle during a heart attack.
• Heart attack is a leading killer of both men and women in the United States. Every 20 seconds one American suffers a Heart attack

The National Heart Attack Alert Program notes these major signs of a heart attack:

§  Chest discomfort. Most heart attacks involve discomfort in the center of the chest that lasts for more than a few minutes, or goes away and comes back. The discomfort can feel like uncomfortable pressure, squeezing, fullness, or pain.

§  Discomfort in other areas of the upper body. Can include pain or discomfort in one or both arms, the back, neck, jaw, or stomach.

§  Shortness of breath. Often comes along with chest discomfort. But it also can occur before chest discomfort.

§  Other symptoms. May include breaking out in a cold sweat, nausea, or light-headedness.

§  If you think that you or someone you know is having a heart attack, you should call 911 immediately.

—Submitted by Murrieta fire Chief Matt Shobert