On the occasions I've worked alongside the LAS (e.g. Notting Hill, NYE), they've explained to me about how the Lifepak 12 (a machine that can do ECGs, act as defibrillator and monitor the patient e.g. O2 stats, BP, pulse) has helped them to diagnose and treat cardiac problems far more effectively.
Hold up,what's a STEMI?
STEMI stands for ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction. I'll break it down further and explain each part.
ST Elevation refers to elevation of the ST segment of a PQRST complex on an ECG. An ECG measures the electrical activity in the heart. The ST segment represents the electrical activity when blood is pumped out of your heart. An ST Elevation indicates that your heart is having to pump a lot harder than normal to pump blood out of the heart,which means that there is a blockage which is impeding normal blood flow.
Normal ECG |
ECG of a STEMI |
Myocardial Infarction is a heart attack that results from an interruption in the blood supply causing some of the hear (cardiac) cells to die.
Myocardial - pertaining to the heart muscle
Infarction - tissue death caused by an obstruction in the blood supply causing a lack of oxygen
Code STEMI Documentary
http://www.insomniacmedic.com - Where this great Code STEMI documentary was discovered
http://firstrespondersnetwork.com/codestemi - The Code STEMI documentary website
https://twitter.com/Ldn_Ambulance - Twitter feed for the LAS, lots of relavent stuff on there
Twitter Hastag: #CodeSTEMI