12 Lead Electrocardiograms

 Cardiac emergencies are one of the most common medical emergencies that the EMT’s of the South Burlington Fire Department encounter.  Given how often heart attacks and other cardiac related  incidents occur, Firefighters are continuously training and enhancing their assessment skills in order to treat  these potentially life threatening calls.  Time is always of the essence when dealing with cardiac complications, and the South Burlington Fire Department now has a new tool to help minimize the time from the onset of symptoms to the beginning of the definitive medical treatment.  These new 12 Lead Electrocardiogram defibrillators record the electrical activity of a patient’s heart over a period of time.  It helps diagnose cardiac arrhythmias, and it can often show whether or not a patient is having a heart attack. 

  12 Lead Electrocardiogram (EKG) technology has been around for quite some time; however, the use of these cardiac rhythm recording machines in the field is something that is new for us.   Fletcher Allen Health Care received a privately funded grant that allowed for all transporting ambulances in Chittenden County to have one 12 Lead EKG defibrillator.  These machines not only provide life saving electronic shocks to the heart, but they also read a patient’s blood pressure, heart rate, oxygen saturation, and cardiac rhythm.  Furthermore, the advanced technology allows for EMT’s conducting the 12 Lead EKG to send the results to FAHC’s ER via Blue Tooth data phone. This happens almost instantaneously, and the Emergency Room Physicians receive a clear printout of the EKG. The end result is that definitive treatment begins even before the patient arrives at  the emergency department.  As soon as Physicians see that a patient is having a heart attack, Cardiologist are notified and the Cardiac Catheterization Lab is put on alert.

 We use these 12 Lead EKG’s as part of our assessment of medical patients where cardiac complications may be suspected.  10 stickers attached to leads are placed on specific areas of the patient:  One on each arm, one on each leg, three on the chest region, and three on the left rib area.  The placement of these leads takes a little more time than our older three lead machines, but in the end it provides a much clearer picture of what’s going on with the patient’s heart.  The overall goal of doing the EKG is to shorten the time from when the patient begins to have symptoms, such as chest pain or shortness of breath, to the definitive treatment which takes place in the cardiac catheterization laboratory.  The New England Journal of Medicine has defined this as “door to balloon time”, and it holds 90 minutes or less as the gold standard.  Given our quick response times and short transport distance, our EMT’s are ensuring that this happens. 

 The South Burlington Fire Department has always prided itself on having its Firefighters/EMT’s up to date with what’s new in the Emergency Medical field.  The 12 lead is now a new tool that we use in conjunction with cardiac medications, IV therapy, and Oxygen administration in our treatment of cardiac patients.  As always, we strive for the best care for our patients, and this new technology hopefully will aid in doing so.  If you have any questions regarding the 12 Lead EKG or any other issues, please give us a call at 846-4110 . FF/EMT-I Nick Perkov