Saluting the Enemies of Sudden Cardiac Arrest

Emergency responders in New York City and San Diego, along with a well-known emergency physician, were among those honored this year by the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Association for their efforts to reduce the toll of SCA, the nation's leading cause of death.

The Association recognized the winners of its leadership awards at a dinner held during its yearly meeting October 10 in Chicago. The awards are given to corporations, community programs and other advocates who work to raise awareness of SCA, prevent sudden cardiac death and improve cardiovascular health.

This year's recipients included:

Medical Leadership Award: Fire Department of New York EMS and Office of Medical Affairs--The FDNY spearheaded the nation's largest EMS-led therapeutic hypothermia program. Its crews begin cooling treatment in the field and transport SCA patients directly to hospitals that utilize therapeutic hypothermia treatments. This therapy cools the patient, allowing a gradual, managed return of organ functions, which improves patient outcomes and minimizes the neurological damage that can result from oxygen deprivation following an SCA event. Across New York City's five boroughs, at least 40 hospitals are participating in the program's first phase. Next year, the second phase will bring therapeutic hypothermia tools such as specialized IV fluids to FDNY ambulances.

"The growth of hypothermia therapy is an exciting thing for SCA survival," says SCAA Executive Director Chris Chiames. "New York wasn't necessarily the first to implement these protocols, but their being able to do so in the nation's largest city, cooperating through multiple layers of bureaucracy, is pretty impressive. It's like the song: If you can do it there, you can do it anywhere, and there's no reason why those same kinds of programs can't be put into place in communities around the country, large and small."

Public Service Award: San Diego Project Heart Beat--Since its inception in 2001, this public access defibrillation program--a partnership between San Diego Fire-Rescue and Rural/Metro--has helped bring more than 4,000 AEDs to the community, trained tens of thousands in CPR and AED use, and saved more than 50 lives. It has also helped galvanize public support for laws that help expand the presence of AEDs across the city.

"Project Heart Beat has been around for a while, but it's one of those gold standard kinds of programs," says Chiames. "It helped lead last year to the enactment of a city ordinance requiring AEDs in public buildings, and it's represented an ongoing commitment by the entire political, public health, EMS and hospitals communities of San Diego to take a systems approach in addressing SCA."

June Daugherty Public Spirit Award: Joseph Ornato, MD, FACP, FACC, FACEP--Chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University and medical director for the Richmond Ambulance Authority, Ornato received the Daugherty award--named for the women's basketball coach at Washington State, an SCA survivor--for his work raising awareness about and preventing death from SCA and cardiovascular disease. Ornato's body of work includes SCA research, membership in industry groups, academic instruction and development of new technologies. He is cochair of the Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium, and past chair of the AHA's National Emergency Cardiovascular Care Committee and ACLS Subcommittee.

Public Leadership Award: Illinois Governor Patrick Quinn--As lieutenant governor, Quinn worked with the state legislature to pass a law requiring defibrillators in schools and park and physical fitness facilities. He also helped spur creation of the state's Heartsaver AED Fund, which provides matching grants to help bring AEDs to communities. He has been among the most visible public officials working to raise SCA survival.