FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:    Capt. Dave Wheaton, Lee County Emergency Medical Services
                (941) 335-1661

FORT MYERS, Fla. (March 14, 2001) – Lee County Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and other local Advanced Life Support (ALS) providers now are using two new drugs that could double patients’ chances of surviving a cardiac arrest.

The two new drugs – Vasopressin and Amiodarone – are used to enhance treatment of Ventricular Fibrillation, the most common cause of sudden cardiac death. The agencies have been using the new drugs for about a week.

Lee County EMS and the fire departments of Lehigh Acres, Fort Myers Beach, South Trail, San Carlos Park, Estero and Bonita Springs all recently began using the Universal International Advanced Cardiac Life Support Algorithm for providing care for patients in cardiac arrest. The algorithm, promulgated by the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation, calls for the use of Vasopressin or Amiodarine as one of the steps in treating a patient.

Both medicines replace the more traditional Epinephrine therapy and evidence suggests the new treatment could increase survival rates from 35 percent to 70 percent upon hospital admission and from 15 percent to 40 percent upon discharge.

The changes are part of an overall American Heart Association (AHA) update currently being phased-in nationwide. The new "evidence-based criteria" are the result of continual studies by the AHA and show definite promise for increased survivability of cardiac arrest. Cardiac arrest, where the heart and breathing stop, strikes approximately 350,000 Americans annually. Survival is about two-to-five percent, but is higher in communities where an active citizen Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) and Early Defibrillation program is available. Lee County has such a program in place.

In addition, the county has purchased 50 Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) for use in public facilities such as local government buildings, professional baseball parks (Hammond Stadium and City of Palms Park), the Edison-Ford Estates, Harborside Convention Hall, and various community centers.

The AEDs are easy-to-use heart defibrillation machines that use computerized assessments of heart rhythms to allow non-medical personnel, with minimal training, to give safe and easy rapid defibrillation.

Lee County EMS provides out-of-hospital advanced life support response and care to more than 54,000 citizens and visitors each year and also operates an air ambulance helicopter. Its annual budget is $15.9 million and it employs 170 people.