58 year old male patient chest pain
This call was submitted by a medic for a nearby EMS service.
58 yom appeared to be in reasonably good health with no PMH was at work complaining of sub-sternal chest pain with radiation to both arms with numbness to hands bilaterally. He was cool, clammy, and diaphoretic with shortness of breath. Onset of symptoms was approximately 20 minutes prior to calling EMS. 12 lead performed on scene prior to loading patient. T wave inversion noted along with ST elevation. Lifenet helicopter contacted and EMS advised of a 20 minute ETA. Enroute patient received two large bore IV’s with one NS @ KVO. Patient also received 02 @ 15L VIA NRB which resolved SOB. NTG X 3 SL followed by 12 lead without change and updated V/S assessment. Patients pain was @ 10/10 initially then 5/10 upon arrival at LZ. V/S remained stable an transferred to LifeNet helicopter and flown to a PCI center 10 minutes away by air. This patient was taken to the cath lab and received 2 stients and is not doing well.
20 minutes onscene for a 10-minute flight… I’m curious, how long would it have taken if they drove?
This EMS unit did not wait on scene 20 minutes. The ETA to the LZ for the helicopter was 20 minutes. The estimated time for the unit to the LZ was 15 minutes. The time to the PCI center that they use would have been approximately 1 hour from scene.
10-12 minute flight can easily be an hour or more drive…so they did the right thing and cut transport in half.
A very nice example of how thinking ahead by the crew (alerting the helicopter) for this transport increased the patients chance of recovery. Unfortunately the patient is not doing well according to your post but in my opinion it was definitely the right call, just like Anonymous said.