This Week in EMS: A Recap for August 18 - 24, 2007

This week's death toll from two storm systems - one that has spanned the Upper Midwest and another from remnants of Tropical Storm Erin in Texas, Oklahoma and Missouri - rose to at least 26 Friday.

The storms also left many injured and forced numerous rescues and evacuations. In Findlay, Ohio, one of the worst-hit areas, rescuers in boats and canoes navigated waist-deep water to rescue people and pets.

Among those killed were a man found tangled in a tree near Lewiston, Minn. on Tuesday, and three people standing at a flooded intersection in Madison, Wis. Wednesday, who were apparently electrocuted when lightning hit a utility pole and caused a power line to fall in the water. On Thursday, the body of a high school cross-country runner was recovered from rain-swollen lake, one day after he was swept away while trying to cross a flooded trail along with his track teammates.

On Thursday a powerful storm hit the Chicago area, causing a roof to collapsed at the dock area of a suburban industrial building. Forty people were injured, but none seriously.

As of Friday, thousands of homes across these regions had been damaged or left without power.

To read more visit:

• Midwest Flood Death Toll Rises to 26
• 22 Killed, Hundreds Displaced by Flooding
• Teen's Body Recovered from Oklahoma Lake after Flood

In this week's top EMS news, Atlanta has emerged as a national example for improving cardiac-arrest survival rates, according to a USA TODAY report.

Efforts to improve Atlanta's emergency system began in 2003, and involved participation in a program created in Atlanta by Emory University and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The program is known as Cardiac Arrest Registry to Enhance Survival, or CARES.

Since September 2005, the survival rate for such patients in Atlanta has jumped from less than 3 percent to 15 percent - well above the 6 to 10 percent survival rate for most cities, according to a 2003 analysis by USA TODAY.

According to the report, Atlanta's success has made it, and the program it's following, a template for cities trying to improve cardiac-arrest survival rates. Several cities -- including Houston, Anchorage, Austin, Cincinnati, Kansas City, Mo., Raleigh, N.C., and Tucson -- are following in Atlanta's footsteps by signing up for the Emory/CDC program.

Other efforts in Atlanta included the mayor ordering all 8,000 city employees, including herself, to be trained in CPR.

To read more about the Emory/CDC program and the changes in Atlanta, visit Atlanta Becomes a Template for Improving Cardiac-Arrest Survival Rates.

In the latest reported EMS line of duty death, an EMT from Missouri collapsed and died on duty last Friday.

At about 5 p.m., George Beeler, 67, told a co-worker at Slater Ambulance District that he was having chest pain. En route to the hospital, the ambulance crew called for an ALS unit to meet them. Beeler went into cardiac arrest before he arrived.

In addition to working at Slater Ambulance, Beeler also worked at Howard County Ambulance Service and was a volunteer at Glasgow Volunteer Fire Department.

He is survived by his wife and seven children, including a son who is a paramedic and worked together with his father.

To read the article by EMSResponder.com's Susan Nicol Kyle, visit Missouri EMT Collapses, Dies on Duty.

In this week's top industry news, the National Association of EMTs (NAEMT) members voted overwhelmingly in favor of new bylaws that will change the way the Association is governed and organized.

NAEMT members will now vote directly for NAEMT officers and directors, as opposed to in the past, when NAEMT leaders were elected by a Board of Governors representing affiliated state EMS associations. The Board of Governors was eliminated with the approval of the new bylaws.