PANAMA CITY, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) – If you or someone you know is possibly having a heart attack or stroke, it’s important to call an ambulance, Bay County EMS and Ascension Scared Heart Bay Hospital officials tell us. It could be the difference between life and death.

In fact, the American Heart Association recently recognized Bay County EMS for its speed and efficiency in providing life-saving care to stroke and heart attack patients.

Matthew Lindewirth, Bay County’s emergency services director, says, “You call 911, we come there. One of the things we have to do to make sure we’re doing it right is we do a 12-lead, which is a stereo view of your heart with all the little squiggly lines that most people don’t know what they mean… we look at it and try to figure out what’s going on in your heart. If we find a heart attack, we fax that to the hospital, who activates the cardiology team there and has the catheter team ready for us. We get them to the hospital, they do some quick labs and stuff like that, put another 12 leads on and then it goes straight to the catheter lab if it’s bad enough.”

Ascension officials tell us that teamwork helps them both succeed.

Kunal Jani, the chief medical officer at Ascension Scared Heart Bay, tells us, “Time equals brain. Getting timely care is very important, so the quicker you can get to the hospital, the quicker we can treat you and the quicker we can help you. The ambulance service is crucial because they can spot signs of a stroke on the spot, so to speak, and get you to us where we can take care of you much quicker.”

Bay County EMS has been awarded the American Heart Association’s Lifeline Silver Award and Ascension Sacred Heart Bay Hospital received the American Heart Association’s Gold Plus Get With The Guidelines – Stroke Award. Their partnership is so strong and important that they even train together to be as cohesive and efficient as possible.

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