The Las Cruces Fire Department's impact on sudden cardiac arrest

The Las Cruces Fire Department's impact on sudden cardiac arrest
Las Cruces has nearly twice as many sudden cardiac arrest patients as would be predicted based on population size when compared to national averages. More than 100 sudden non-traumatic cardiac arrests occur each year in our city. The news is not all bad, however. In recent years, the Las Cruces Fire Department (LCFD) has significantly impacted survival from this tragic event.

LCFD responds to all 911 calls for sudden cardiac arrest with one or more paramedics and additional EMTs. Most sudden cardiac arrest patients in the city are managed at the emergency scene. On-scene, patient management is a change from the old system of rapidly transporting patients to an emergency department for care. LCFD has the trained teams to provide all the same skills, procedures, and medications as any emergency department can for sudden cardiac arrest. Transporting patients in active cardiac arrest has been shown to lessen survival rates and increase the risk of injury to the patient and their caregivers in a moving ambulance.

In the years that I have studied the outcome from sudden cardiac arrest in Las Cruces, LCFD has consistently brought patients back from certain death over 40% of times. Compared to the national statistic of 29% of patients with a return of heart activity and a pulse, the 40% return of pulses achieved in our community is impressive. How is the higher rate achieved? First, about half of the patients resuscitated are witnessed collapsing, and there is a quick call for help. The local dispatch agency, Mesilla Valley Regional Dispatch Authority, has trained dispatchers who instruct callers on how to perform CPR. They do this in the vast majority of calls. Secondly, LCFD has a rapid response time. The average call gets an LCFD team on scene within 6 minutes, with 98% of calls having a responder arrive on the scene is less than 10 minutes. Finally, LCFD teams provide up-to-date care and interventions that have been demonstrated to restore heart activity and pulse.

Overall, survival from this terrible emergency isn't known. But LCFD ensures that all patients receive a high level of care, which results in nearly half of these patients arriving at the emergency department with good chances for a positive outcome. I expect this to continue in the future. LCFD continues to train and educate on the care of sudden cardiac arrest patients and expand its number of skilled paramedics and EMTs. The Journal of Emergency Medical Services recently published a scientific article on LCFD's response to out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients. The report is available to the public online

at: https://www.emsairway.com/2021/03/29/return-of-spontaneous-circulation-rates-in-out-of-hospital-cardiac-arrest-by-a-small-urban-fire-department/

The cost of care for sudden cardiac arrest is not inconsequential. It takes medications, supplies, sophisticated equipment, and many EMTs to successfully recover a patient. But it is an investment in life that is borne by LCFD and the citizens of Las Cruces. We all have much to be grateful for in the 911 system in our community when it comes to sudden cardiac arrest.