EMS Council gains national recognition for efforts
The Fayette County Emergency Medical Services Council has gained national recognition for its efforts to place possible life-saving devices throughout Fayette County. The council’s five-year automated external defibrillator (AED) project achieved the Best Practices of 2002 award from the Office of Community Development, U.S. Department of Agriculture. The award highlights the efforts of “enterprise communities,” those that are federally designated, based on poverty and need assessments.
Fayette County was placed in that status in 1999.
Robert C. Junk Jr., strategic planning manager of the Fay-Penn Economic Development Council, trekked to Orlando, Fla., to receive the award during a National Office of Community Development conference that all representatives from the enterprise communities attended.
“‘Best Practices’ looks at outstanding benchmarks and projects that had made a positive impact in the country and in the community,” said Junk. “Those awarded projects are then recognized as good examples in our community and they are looked at by other communities as good examples to use in the case that they may want to initiate a similar project.”
Out of the roughly 300 submissions from enterprise communities from around the nation, only 160 projects were adopted and named, said Junk. The AED project counted as one of those 160, while Junk named five other Fayette County projects that received awards: the Community Action Medical Center, the Community Action campus, the Republic Park, general transportation improvements and the State Theatre Center for the Arts.
“It was great to see Fayette County, the Fayette Enterprise Community, have six best practices in the last year,” said Junk. “We can continue with these projects, continue to save lives and continue to improve the quality of life for all individuals in the community.”
The Fayette Enterprise Community, maintained since 1999, has worked with elected officials, community agencies and residents to identify need-based projects for implementation in the county’s enterprise communities: Redstone Township, Menallen Township, a portion of Dunbar Township and sections of Connellsville and Uniontown.
Initiation of the defibrillator/AED five-year project began in the spring of 2000 by the Fayette County EMS Council, a group that includes practicing paramedics who realize the countywide need for such life-saving devices. The council, along with Fay-Penn, area hospitals and municipalities, worked toward a five-year goal of placing AEDs “within every 5-square-mile area” of Fayette County and the even greater goal of placing AEDs “within five minutes’ reach of every Fayette County resident.”
In addition to these groups, elected officials and other area organizations pitched in to ensure the spread and purchase of AEDs.
“It was a team approach, with a lot of cooperation from different groups,” said Ted Mellors, coordinator of the Fayette County EMS Council and medical training instructor for the county since 1982. “The technology available was used, and so the idea for AED purchase in Fayette County was sparked.”
The revival power of the AEDs was proven when crews saved the life of a Fayette County resident, who wishes to remain anonymous. In November 2001, this 62-year-old Dunbar man is recorded as surviving a fatal heart attack due to an AED response from emergency personnel at the Smock Volunteer Fire Department.
“This individual is alive today because a system was in place to provide early, community-based defibrillation,” said Mellors, who said he expects the AEDs to save many more lives of victims of sudden heart attacks.
“One of the reasons we submitted the AED project for ‘Best Practices’ was because it actually saved a person’s life,” said Junk. “How do you put a value on a life?”
AEDs are small and portable, weigh about 8 pounds and cost $2,595 each.
When the heart stops beating and all heart-working bodily signals shut down, a defibrillator restarts the heart with an electric jolt, restoring normal heart rhythm. Research shows that defibrillators assist in preventing the threat of coronary disease, including sudden heart attack deaths.
“AEDs are really an offshoot, an advancement, of what the paramedics use throughout the country,” said Mellors. “It can defibrillate the heart and save someone from sudden cardiac arrest. It can be used with minimal training.”
According to Mellors’ research and 20 years of working experience in the Fayette County medical field, in 1998, the average arrival time of emergency medical crews to treat sudden cardiac arrest victims was four minutes after dispatch time in urban areas and 81/2 minutes in rural areas.
“Every minute counts, and according to all the research, early defibrillation is the key to saving lives. There’s no ands, ifs or buts about it,” Mellors said.
Two areas of the county were listed as priority locations for AED placement: the eastern mountain communities and the enterprise communities, Mellors said.
In Fayette County, 42 locations have been equipped with AEDs, with six more areas scheduled for AED installation in the next two months. This life-saving equipment has been placed in strategic locations, near to the approximate 400 police officers and firefighters that have been trained with the operating know-how of AEDs, said Mellors.
According to Junk and Mellors, about $160,000 in grant money, $66,000 of which came from the Fayette Enterprise Community, has been acquired for the purchase of AEDs.
Mellors noted that external defibrillators have become more widely used, mainly because of the advancing technology that has made them smaller and more sophisticated devices, coupled with the passing of a Pennsylvania law that allows the public to use defibrillating devices.
“We are on the tip of the iceberg,” said Mellors. “The units are only getting smaller, smarter and more economically available. According to the news, they may even be in homes pretty soon.”
With the project in its third year, Mellors said it is not time for the EMS council to rest just yet, even after receiving the national award.
“We are very pleased with the progress made in three years,” said Mellors.
“But, ultimately, we are looking to achieve our goal of providing an AED within five minutes’ reach of every Fayette County resident, so every citizen at risk of sudden cardiac arrest can be saved,” said Mellors.
“When that goal is reached, I think that’s the day when we’ll take a breather and celebrate.”