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If a heart attack is unavoidable, the place to have one is in Kosciusko County.
The emergency medical services here have one of the highest cardiac arrest survival rate in the country with a rate of 21 percent last year, local officials said.
"The national average of cardiac arrest saves is 5 percent," said Dr. David Hartman. "Saves means released from the hospital with all their faculties, no brain damage or heart damage."
In 2004, the local rescuers began a procedure that was still in the study-and-research stage.
Hartman said the proof was in and neither he nor Dr. Mike Williams wanted to wait while the American Heart Association lawyers haggled about liability. The Association sets heart-related guidelines for many medical procedures.
Hartman is the medical director for the Kosciusko Community Emergency Care Center and director of the Syracuse EMS. Williams is the medical director for the North Webster EMS and Multi-Township EMS.
The new procedure involves rapid, sequential compression of the chest to re-energize the heart if a person has been "down" for more than four minutes. The compressions should be done at a rate of 100 times per minute for two to four minutes.
No more mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. The body will retain 92 percent of its oxygen level for seven minutes.
Chest compressions are followed by defibrillation - electrical shocks - administered to get the heart's electrical pattern back on track.
The AHA released the new guidelines in the fall of 2005, 18 months after the county emergency medical personnel started practicing it.
"They were willing to take the risk and liability," said Multi-Township Director Carla Gebert about Hartman and Williams. "They put their medical licenses on the line.
"Now everyone else in the state has our protocols."
Hartman and Gebert expressed their gratitude to the K21 Foundation, too. Foundation money equipped every emergency vehicle - police, fire and medical - with automatic external defibrillators.
"Police officers don't usually want anything to do with health matters," Hartman said. "That's not the case here."
Gebert talked about a cardiac arrest call to downtown Warsaw recently. She was on the responding ambulance.
"I looked up and saw three policemen racing up the stairs ahead of us. Each one of them carried an AED.
"You can't be anywhere in this county where someone with an AED can't get there in five minutes."
AED training and equipment, plus the new cardio pulmonary resuscitation methods, have provided dramatic results in cardiac arrest survival rates.
"Survival means neurologically intact. I don't figure anyone's been saved if they don't have quality of life," Gebert said.
In 1999, there were 65 cardiac arrest patients: 42 males and 23 females. None of them survived.
In 2000, there were 49 cardiac arrest patients: 34 males and 15 females. Four were trauma patients. Three survived and were released from the hospital, a 7 percent rate.
In the fall of 2000, use of the AEDs by emergency personnel began.
In 2001, there were 49 cardiac arrest patients: 32 males and 17 females. One was a trauma patient. Six survived and were released from the hospital, a 12 percent rate.
In 2001, the AED training expanded to include teachers and industry workers.
In 2002, there were 51 cardiac arrest patients: 32 males and 19 females and zero trauma patients. Eight survived and were released from the hospital, a 16 percent rate.
In 2003, there were 52 cardiac arrest patients: 25 males and 27 females. Four were trauma patients. Nine survived and were released from the hospital, an 18 percent rate.
In 2004, three were 36 cardiac arrest patients: 21 males and 15 females. Three were trauma patients. Six survived and were released from the hospital, a 17 percent rate.
The new protocols were adopted by the Kosciusko County ambulance services in May 2004.
In 2005, the survival rate jumped to 21 percent.
Trauma patients are people whose heart stopped because of an automobile accident. Hartman said they rarely survive.
