Investigation: Rescue Response

When your heart stops pumping, CPR may help buy you time, but it takes a shock of electricity to bring you back to life.

“As soon as I sat down, it hit me,” said John Caldwell hitting his chest. A heart attack hit him last year near Duncan. He and his family waited more than 30 minutes for an ambulance to arrive.

911 call: "It has been 30 minutes and he is getting worse, and no one is here," said a family member with Caldwell to the 911 operator.

His heart didn't stop beating, but he says it came close. EMS and a fire department were in route, but neither got there fast enough. Caldwell's family eventually drove him to the hospital. Days later, the county told us its crews were stretched thin that day. “And in all likelihood, it could possibly occur again,” said Spartanburg County Communications Director Jimmy Green.

The American Heart Association says you have six minutes or less to survive a cardiac arrest before you die or suffer severe brain damage. For every minute blood stops flowing to the brain, chances of surviving drops 10 percent.

When EMS is not available, fire departments respond to cardiac arrests, but a 7 on your side investigation found not all fire departments have the same success at re-starting your heart, and depending where you live, could mean life or death.

Check out our interactive map of resuscitation in Spartanburg County.

We looked at three years worth of cardiac arrest response data from 25 fire departments in Spartanburg County who use AED’s, otherwise known as automatic external defibrillators, to restart your heart.

Of the 261 cardiac arrest calls crews responded to and CPR performed, crews resuscitated patients only 21 percent of the time. Six fire districts have not been able to resuscitate anyone's heart in the past three years.

The Hilltop Fire Department is one of them. Of the 13 cardiac arrest calls it responded to and CPR, it did not successfully resuscitate anyone.

We asked the fire chief if he thought residents should be concerned. Chief John Hall said, “I would hope that they wouldn't be...that they would know we're coming, and we're going to be there in the event is delayed or responding for a location that is further away from our station here.”

Hall says EMS typically gets to the scene before his crew's do, which could explain his department's low resuscitation rate.

North Spartanburg fire department's resuscitation rate is higher. Nearly 30 percent. While that sounds low, it’s better than the six percent national average.

Cardiologist Greg San at Saint Francis Hospital says the fire departments that can get an AED to patients the quickest, will have the most successful resuscitation rates. “The CPR gets the blood flow going in a rhythmic fashion. You bring in the AED, and restore a normal pulse, a normal circulation, normal blood flow to the brain, and you'll have a survivor on your hands.”

A fire department's success also comes down to economics. State certified fire departments by the Department of Health and Environmental Control have crews able to administer medication while EMS is route. The certification requires more staff, and it cost extra money and tax dollars. Hilltop is not certified, while North Spartanburg is.

Some fire districts didn't respond to our requests, or told us they're not required to track its cardiac arrest responses.

CPR Training Information:

Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System: CPR American Heart Assoc TrainingSpartanburg Regional Healthcare System: CPR American Heart Assoc Training

(864) 560-6282‎

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