Experts: Cardiac survival worse in Suffolk

In Suffolk County, only 2 percent of people treated by EMTs for cardiac arrests in 2009 leave the hospital without serious problems, local emergency medicine experts told a legislative committee Thursday.

And the chances of surviving a cardiac arrest are worse in Suffolk than in other parts of the country, Edward Stapleton, associate professor of emergency medicine at Stony Brook University, told the county legislature's public safety committee.

Though studies have used different measurements, he said 5 to 10 percent of cardiac patients treated by emergency medical technicians in other places survive without neurological damage.

Stapleton cited King County, Wash., where the chances were about 50/50 last year that cardiac patients treated by EMTs survive, said James Apa, spokesman for the Seattle and King County public health department.

The numbers were part of an assessment of Suffolk's EMT system by the Suffolk Regional Emergency Medical Services Council, a body created by the state to coordinate emergency medical services. Stapleton chairs a working group of the council, which includes representatives from hospital emergency rooms, municipal and volunteer fire departments.

Bob Delagi, Suffolk's acting EMS director, said in an interview the numbers ignored improvements the county has made. Nassau County was not immediately able to say if they keep data on the survival rate of EMT cardiac patients. Stapleton and Edward Boyd, chairman of the Suffolk emergency council and former chief of the Southold fire department, said training more community members to do CPR could improve Suffolk's success.

Stapleton said a review of Suffolk EMT cardiac logs showed bystanders attempted CPR in 19 percent of the cases in 2009. Jim Fogarty, director of Emergency Medical Services for the Seattle and King County public health department, said the figure was about 60 percent in Seattle last year.

"The chances are that if someone collapses out here, someone is going to dial 911 or perform CPR," said Fogarty, who had been a paramedic in North Babylon in the 1970s.

Delagi said his division offers CPR training to EMTs, some of whom pass on the training to community groups. He acknowledged his division was focused on EMTs and did not offer CPR training to the public.