January 10, 2001

PRESS RELEASE

To: Newsroom

For Immediate Release

Contact: Brian A. Crawford, Public Information Officer

Phone: 673-6652, cell: 455-2609, page: 675-2137

Fire Department Introduces New Cardiac Life Saving Drug

■ New Medical Director sees benefits of new therapy

Every 90 seconds a person in the United States suffers a cardiac arrest. The Shreveport Fire Department, long considered a pioneer and leader in the field of pre-hospital medicine, wants to do everything it can to see that those who do suffer a cardiac arrest, live to tell about it. With that in mind, the fire department today announced that they will start carrying a new, some say breakthrough cardiac drug therapy called amiodarone.

Recent clinical studies based on the American Heart Association’s advanced cardiac life support (ACLS) criteria, those used by the fire department, showed that patients who received amiodarone during ventricular fibrillation (heart quivering and unable to generate a pulse) and ventricular tachycardia (irregular heartbeat, with or without a pulse) had a 27% increase in survival-to-hospital admission, as compared with those who did not receive the drug.

The addition of amiodarone marks the first change in medical protocols for the department under new Medical Director Derrel Graham M.D. Dr. Graham, recently named by Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran to replaced long time fire department medical director Ronnie Lambert M.D., says the new drug’s clinical findings are encouraging. "We believe the addition of amiodarone to the department’s current pharmacological therapy will prove beneficial in the chance of a patient surviving a heart attach outside of the hospital," says Graham.

For the Shreveport Fire Department, the first EMS provider to bring advanced life support (ALS)and paramedics to the area in 1984, and the first to introduce 12-lead EKG field monitors in 1992, the addition of amiodarone is just part of a long line of EMS innovations adopted by the department. "Anytime you have a clinically proven instrument at your disposal to promote and increase the lifesaving efforts of the medical community, it is our responsibility to investigate the findings and if applicable, provide it to our patients" says fire department spokesman Brian Crawford. ###