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Cumberland Trail EMS Earns Award For Heart Treatment

Cumberland Trail Fire District earned the American Heart Association’s Lifeline EMS Bronze Award by exceeding the organization’s standards of care for severe heart attacks.

Wheeling Hospital Vice President of Marketing and Public Relations Gregg Warren and Wheeling Hospital Director of Cardiac Services Dr. Robert Fanning hosted a ceremony at the main fire station in St. Clairsville Wednesday to announce the award and to recognize Cumberland Trail for being a partner in excellence in the treatment of severe heart attacks.

“Cumberland Trail is very proud to receive this award because it shows that we meet the standards set from the American Heart Association, and we try to maintain those standards,” said Cumberland Trail fire Lt. Chad Zambori. “We would like to thank Wheeling Hospital for their assistance throughout the application process, and we hope that we are able to maintain those standards for the coming years.”

Cumberland Trail Chief Lance Rice said the award was a true team effort.

“Most of the credit goes to our department personnel for providing the best treatment possible. Our EMS personnel do an excellent job treating patients during transport to the hospital. Their knowledge and skills to recognize a (heart attack) patient is what is most important, and that provides the best possible patient care for our citizens,” Rice said.

Fanning congratulated the crew and noted the importance of community support for excellent EMS services.

“This is a dedication that doesn’t go unrecognized,” he said. “Sometimes a patient comes in having a heart attack and the family comes to me saying, ‘Thank you so much for saving my father,’ for example. And I have to explain to them if these (EMS) guys don’t get to a patient and definitively diagnose the patient and get them the care that they need en route to hospital, I don’t stand a chance. We at Wheeling Hospital don’t stand a chance.”

Fanning also noted the importance of financial support from the Belmont County Board of Commissioners and the community in providing the equipment and personnel needed for EMS to properly diagnose, treat and sustain a heart attack patient en route to the hospital. Commissioner Matt Coffland said the county gives $6,500 annually to each Belmont County municipality for EMS equipment.

“The community has made it clear they have made an investment here and that they want these services, and by God, they’ve gotten them,” said Fanning.

According to Warren, Wheeling Hospital is the only local hospital that can provide angioplasty and stents for severe heart attack patients, so the hospital works closely with EMS with record-keeping and providing training and equipment.

“If EMS doesn’t bring the patient to us alive, there is nothing we can do, period. It’s these people out in the field who keep that life going until they get to the hospital, and they are being recognized for the great job they do in doing this,” Warren said.

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