WHAT IS THE “CALL TO SHOCK” TIMEFRAME?

In my previous article, I outline what a Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) is and its purpose.  I explained that the PSAP for this area is located at the Androscoggin County Dispatch.  This is where all 911 calls for emergency services are received for Lisbon, Durham, Sabattus and Greene.  References 1 and 2 explained the PSAP more clearly by professional emergency services personnel.

Now, I am going to try and explain the impact of having the Lisbon Communication Center/Dispatch dispatch First Responders instead of the Androscoggin County Dispatch alerting the First Responders in emergency situations.  What the delay by having Androscoggin County Dispatch relay information to the Lisbon Communication Center/Dispatch prior to dispatching First Responders has on the survival of victims. 

I will be extracting information from references 3 and 4.  These references are written by professional emergency medical experts who have studied the impact of delays in what is referred to as “Call to Shock”.  “Call to shock” is the time it takes from the time the 911 call is received at the PSAP and the moment the victim is shocked by a ventricular fibrillation/defibrillator.  According to the expert, a cardiac arrest victim has 6 minutes to receive defibrillation shock in order to survive.  This is NOT a long time so every second is important to saving lives.

 According to The Journal of Emergency Services the following is timeframe for cardiac victims:

a.    0-4 Seconds to basically make a difference

b.   4-6 minutes they’ll have some sort of brain damage

c.    6-10 minutes they will have brain damage

d.   And after that they’re not going to be with us.

After being provided this information from emergency medical personnel and not Larry Fillmore, let’s apply this information to the current situation this town is in.  First let me tell you, this also applies to Lisbon, Durham, Sabattus and Greene.  Everyone  agrees that there is a delay in Lisbon Communication Center/Dispatch receiving emergency information from the PSAP (Androscoggin County Dispatch) prior to dispatching our First Responders to emergency situations.  It does depend on who you talk to as to how long this delay is but remember the “Call to Shock” is measured from the receipt of the 911 call at Androscoggin County Dispatch to the shocking of the cardiac victim on the scene.  Our love ones only have 6 minutes for a chance to survive and that is not a long time. 

This is why it is so critical that we eliminate all delays in the process and expedite getting our First Response personnel to the victims as quickly as possible.  Our Town Council and Chief Brooks are fighting the elimination of the Lisbon Communication Center so that the PSAP (Androscoggin County Dispatch) can dispatch our First Responders.  I am not sure the Town Council is aware of the information I have just provided but I know that Chief Brooks does.  The current situation is putting all our lives at risk and the Town Council needs to but an immediate stop to this.  The Town Council job is to do what is best for our residents and personnel to ensure this is a safe community to grow up in.

In case you missed the references before I have included them below:

REFERENCES:

1.  http://www.maine.gov/dps/bec/     Welcome To The Consolidated Communications Bureau of State of Maine.

2.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public-safety answering point Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. An explanation of what a PSAP function is?

3.  http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/ems-day2-cover.htm   The price of just a few seconds lost: People die By Robert Davis, USA TODAY.

4.  http://www.iaedjournal.org/content/minutes-matter-and-seconds-count  Minutes matter and seconds count is an article from The Journal of Emergency Dispatch.

OUR LIVES MATTER!!!!  CALL YOUR COUNCILORS AND LET’S PUT A STOP TO THIS!

Larry Fillmore