Keep Up the Good Work Andy!

Last week, Andy and I attended a dinner honoring him for the work he is doing to "provide rapid response and care to victims of Sudden Cardiac Arrest" in the Winona area.  The project he is leading is called Project Helping Hearts.  He was asked by the EMS medical director if he would be willing to spearhead the project and, in true Andy fashion, he enthusiastically jumped right in and is passionately moving forward with this endeavor.

He is doing the project with the support of Winona Health and, in turn, their foundation wanted to recognize him at an event they hosted entitled, "A Celebration of Generosity Heals."  He was one of five people recognized at this year's dinner.

Here's part of the insert from the program for the evening:

 

There was a banner with these words on it, and it will be placed in the hospital for viewing.

Dr. Gallagher, the medical director for Winona Area Ambulance Service, gave the following speech on Andy's behalf:

November 8^th, 2012

Winona Health Foundation

Celebration of Generosity

Good evening, my name is John Gallagher, and I am one of Winona Health's Emergency Physicians. Thank you so much to the foundation for hosting and granting me the privilege of presenting an award. Tonight, I have the very rare honor of giving an award not as an Emergency Physician but as an Emergency Medical Services medical director. One of the best parts of my job is as the Medical Director of the city's paramedics. I have the honor to develop training systems, write medical protocols, and make response plans that in turn affect the care that is given in the 911 system. This process forces us to be very data driven...that is, we like to have numbers on everything...so I'm going to hold a quick survey of the room.

Show of hands here, nothing fancy:

How many have seen paramedics out in the community caring for the people? (all hands, about 75 people) Ok, everyone…that’s good… If you haven’t seen the medics around town you need to get out more!

Next question: How many have called 911 to get a paramedic to come help them in a time of crisis? (about 25 hands)

How many have seen a paramedic actively trying to save a life? (about 10 hands)

now the big one:

With all these people who have seen medics in the community, called them into their own homes for help, and seen them saving lives with their own eyes...how many of you have ever seen a paramedic receive an award? (no hands)

Tonight is a pretty big deal for us.

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So now that we’ve finished our meat and potatoes…..Let talk about cardiac arrest. I’m going to try to impress you with some numbers.

Let’s start with 10. Little old number 10. Not a very scary number but it gets more serious when you learn that 10% of all deaths are from sudden cardiac arrest. Yup, one tenth of this room is going to die from sudden cardiac arrest. In a room like this, that’s an entire table of dinner guests. It’s also  more than all the cancer deaths from Breast, Lung, Colon and prostate cancer all put together!

Some will say "10% isn't bad, most people die of something else." I get it... you're not impressed by little numbers like 10...let’s try a big number. How about 200%? That’s right, 200%...the nerdy way of saying that something is twice as likely or will happen twice as often. You are twice as likely to survive a cardiac arrest if a bystander applies an AED before my paramedics show up…but it only counts if it happens before the medics arrive.

Some of you aren’t impressed by big or little numbers…  you’ll say things like "Why does this matter so much?" and "the medics will be here soon and they'll save the day." Which is great (and how I like to think of them) but this thinking is just plain wrong when it comes to cardiac arrest. The brain gets about 2 minutes before it's in trouble. After 2 minutes you start losing brain tissue… and that’s who you are and who your family loves. Problem is, it takes about 60 seconds to process a 911 call, 60 seconds to get an ambulance out the door (which is faster than many communities), and the average response in town is around 3-5 minutes. Much longer if you live outside the city. For those of you not doing the math, we're way past the two minute cut off for the brain. Fact is, we'll never be able to respond fast enough to save your brain.

If you have a sudden cardiac arrest, your life is literally in the hands of the people with you when it happens. CPR is the most important, and I already told you that your chance of survival is doubled with the use of an AED, but what would you say if you knew that only 47% of people on the street said yes when asked if they would put an AED on someone who's heart stopped beating. 47%...that’s terrible. Even worse, only 53% of people surveyed could even recognize an AED. We've got some work to do.

Fortunately, the work is already in progress. One of the city's finest paramedics, Andy Teska, has taken on this huge project and is actively seeking out and documenting the location of all AEDs in the city and the surrounding area. He's building a database that will connect the public with the knowledge, confidence, and capability to get our survival to twice what it is right now.

Andy's system will be able to compare the location of a cardiac arrest with the closest AED as the event is happening, and get help to the person long before an ambulance arrives. If someone needs an AED at Perkins, Andy's system will allow the 911 dispatcher to call FleetFarm (which is the closest AED to Perkins by the way) and have someone run it over. That person running across the parking lot has a chance of making it in under 2 minutes…before the brain is in trouble.

Andy's connecting people with the tools to literally save lives and send them home to their families. I'm extremely honored to present this award to one of the best paramedics I've ever worked with...please join me in congratulating, Andy Teska.

(Applause)

If you own or know of an AED that should be part of this system, please take a flyer and business card from the table on your way out. Andy will send a paramedic right to your door to help you participate in the program.

Great job Andy!  Keep up the good work!