Forsyth County is innovating work to improve survival rates for patients suffering cardiac arrest. Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist + Forsyth County EMS have teamed up for a program known as eCPR.
Under the program, paramedics will continue to give patients traditional CPR and defibrillation in emergencies. They will also try to determine if damage from the irregular heart rhythm can be reversed. If that’s a possibility, the patient will be placed on an ECMO machine — a heart and lung bypass machine — when they arrive to Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.
“We want to focus on patient-centered outcomes where the person not only survives, but they are the same person they were before their cardiac arrest,” said Forsyth County Emergency Services Director Chief Joey Hundley.
The program is believed to the first of its kind in NC. If eCPR is a success, it could be expanded in the future.
