Members of the Warsaw/Wayne Township Fire Territory who were recognized by Multi-Township EMS for CPR saves.

By TONY DOYLE
Operations Divisions Chief, Multi-Township EMS

This December, Multi-Township EMS recognized all first responders and dispatchers that assisted MTEMS on out of hospital cardiac arrest calls that survived. Claypool Fire, Mentone EMS, and Warsaw/Wayne Township Fire Territory along with four dispatchers at the Kosciusko County Central Dispatch were all given the awards.

In 2014 MTEMS responded to 42 Cardiac Arrests and 14 of the 42 survived the catastrophic event living full lives today. This means MTEMS has a cardiac arrest save rate of 33 percent. The national average save rate is around 5 percent. The cardiac arrest patients that present with Ventricular Fibrillation have a 62 percent chance of survival to hospital discharge in our coverage area. This percentage is comparable to that of Seattle Washington which is the long time leader in cardiac arrest survival.

Multi-Township EMS contributes it’s success in cardiac arrest save rates to it’s community education initiatives. Increased awareness for the need of when CPR is needed and taking away the fear of performing CPR has been MTEMS primary educational focus.

MTEMS has taught over 100 community CPR classes and 600 fourth and sixth graders in the Warsaw Community School District in 2014. During 2013, MTEMS taught 4,800 bystanders CPR.