Bradley County Emergency Medical Service now holds two records at Memorial Hospital in Chattanooga for getting patients experiencing a heart attack to definitive care from the time of symptom onset to delivery to their heart catheterization lab.

When a person is having a myocardial infarction or a “heart attack,” the best outcome for that individual is to get him or her to a facility which can perform invasive cardiac catheterizations. When someone is having a cardiac event, “time is muscle.”

All of the paramedic units in Bradley County are now equipped with the new, state-of-the-art Life Pack 15 Physio-Control heart monitors.

These monitors are capable of acquiring a 12-lead electrocardiogram of a patient’s heart.

The paramedic providing care is trained in ECG interpretation and can now transmit the patient’s electrocardiogram to the receiving hospital so the doctors can see what the paramedics are seeing and a faster determination can be made on where that patient needs to go.

Recently, representatives from Memorial Hospital in Chattanooga met with paramedic Nick Laney and EMT Brian Ballew to use them in a presentation they were making in reference to their cardiac program.

One of the particular calls that was recognized by Memorial was a transport that Laney and Ballew were involved in, transporting a patient from SkyRidge Medical Center to Memorial in a timely manner.

Their quick work got the patient to the cath lab, where life-saving treatment was administered.

“It is exciting to know how many more lives will be saved with this new technology,” said Danny Lawson, BCEMS director.