HUFFMAN — The CPR techniques used by ambulance service providers here came under controversy on May 27 in Houston.
Cypress Creeks recently adopted method of patient resuscitation for patients who have been in cardiac arrest for four minutes or longer used by Cypress Creek EMTs has not been endorsed by the American Heart Association, according to Harris County Health Officials.
One of the reasons ESD#5 of Crosby became more closely associated with Harris County Health Department last year was to start the process of making standards of practice more widely uniform. Thus insuring that everyone is getting the most widely accepted practices in an emergency.
The Medical Director for Cypress Creek, Levone Vartainian allegedly authorized the change for Cypress Creek medics, according to Harris County Emergency Medical Services.
“Medical directors in the region really don’t talk to each other about what protocols they use. We don’t have an agreed upon or forcible standards in the entire region,” University of Texas Medical School Dr. Guy Clifton said.
Harris County Emergency Medical Services released a statement telling its medics to use only procedures endorsed by the American Heart Association.
Allegedly, Cypress Creek is putting into effect new policies of CPR in ambulances calls.
The Star-Courier asked Houston Hooper of ESD#5 if he had heard of new practices being used by the medics under contract for Huffman. Well, I havent taken any of their classes or sat in on any of their training sessions but from what I understand they are teaching first responders and medics not to do ventilation first and not to use the A.E.D. (Automatic External Defibrillator. My opinion is the American Heart Association has done extensive research and numerous studies and decided that both early ventilation and A.E.D. are the way to go. At E.S.D. #5, we are going to continue to operate under American Heart Association guidelines and standards because I believe those are probably the best practices. The A.E.D .has saved lives many times and that is why the airlines, big businesses, even the gambling casinos in Vegas are buying these to install in their locations. In my opinion to tell someone not to use one…Im not going to do it.
