Twenty-one minutes.
That’s the new record in Oakland County when it comes to ‘door-to-balloon time? and the Oxford Fire Department helped set it.
Door-to-balloon time is the time that elapses from the moment a cardiac patient enters the emergency department of a hospital until he or she receives interventional treatment.
Recently, Oxford firefighters Justin Templeton, Dan Adorjan and Brent Ludwig transported a patient who was complaining of chest pain to Crittenton Hospital Medical Center in Rochester Hills.
Thanks to a modem provided by Crittenton and hooked up to one of the fire department’s LIFEPAK units (a 12-lead defibrillator/monitor), emergency personnel were able to immediately transmit data regarding the condition of the patient’s heart to the hospital and the smart phones of the cardiac intervention team. The team was scrambled and when the ambulance arrived at the hospital, Oxford firefighters were able to take the patient straight up to the catheterization lab for immediate treatment.
It was all done in 21 minutes.
‘That record right now stands for all life support agencies in the county,? said Oxford Fire Chief Pete Scholz.