The role of paramedics in resuscitation of patients with prehospital cardiac arrest from coronary artery disease.

Columbus, Ohio added prehospital coronary care to its Emergency Medical Services System (EMS) in 1969. The EMS System, which is citizen activated and tax supported (+5 per citizen per year), currently sees 32,000 patients a year in a city with a population of 650,000. Ninety-six per cent of the population is aware of the system. Over two thirds of patients with ischemic sudden death or myocardial infarction are seen by advanced life support paramedic (EMT-P) units. The EMT-Ps operate by protocol without telemetry and carry all standard resuscitative drugs and devices. Serial evaluations have shown that within the limits of the protocol, the EMT-Ps perform as effectively as physicians in diagnosis and care of acute cardiovascular emergencies, including endotracheal intubation. One third of ischemic cardiac arrest patients in whom resuscitation is possible (60% of such patients seen) are discharged from the hospital alive (14.2/100,000 lives saved per year). Lives are also saved by treatment of other life-threatening prehospital complications. In Columbus, the estimated annual mortality from ischemic heart disease is only 19%. The EMS System contributes significantly to this low figure.