Code STEMI

I have always found cardiology interesting and always wanted to study it at university and then work in a cardiology department. Working with SJA allowed me to gain more knowledge as the doctors and nurses often taught about how a cardiology department works and what are the common heart problems that are treated.
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.

While I reading Insomnia Medic's blog (http://www.insomniacmedic.com), I came across his post on Code STEMI, a documentary made in conjunction with the LAS. This documentary will show how cardiac arrest survival rates have increased dramatically. The LAS are the busiest emergency medical service (EMS) in the world with 250+ ambulances, 100-120 fast response units, and motorcycles,bikes and a helicopter standing by ready to deal with the 4,000 calls (on average) its receives each day. You hear the views from the cardiac arrest survivors, paramedics,cardiologist and a nurse giving you an in-depth insight into what happens from the moment a STEMI is identified to the moment when the patient returns to normal.

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

Useful Links
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