You are out for your daily run—suddenly that pain in your chest that you have been ignoring all week intensifies. You fall to your knees writhing in pain. As you are rolling around on the sidewalk your life begins to play out the last 45 years—pictures cycling though your mind like those home slideshows you and your family would watch together. What now? Are you prepared for your own personal medical disaster? What will paramedics know about you when they arrive to try and save your life?
As a firefighter/paramedic for 20 years in Southern California, I have seen my share of cardiac deaths. Most of them were unconscious or non-verbal upon my arrival—none of them had a complete medical history available for me to do my best work. That would be zero percent. One victim, who we found pulse-less and non-breathing, had no identification and only a garage door opener in his hand. Our police drove through his neighborhood clicking the opener to see if any garage doors would open. This was all we had to try and discover who he was, where he lived, who his family was and what his medical history was.
We have incredible advancements in cardiac monitoring equipment, new life saving drugs and state-of-the art on board computers. We still don"t have INFORMATION and are forced to spend time on the scene of a medical emergency attempting to gather it. The more information we have—the higher the chance our victim has to survive the personal tragedy. Considering 47% of all cardiac cases die before reaching the hospital, this should be in the forefront of everyone"s mind. Give us the all tools we need to save your life!
According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), 29% of all U.S. deaths are cardiac related. Roughly 700,000 die from cardiac disease—47% before they even reach the hospital. The health related costs associated with heart disease is over 260 billon dollars.
These alarming statistics can change but that entirely depends on you. If you think you are ready for a medical emergency I can confidently tell you most if not all of you are not. Out of 20,000 patients I have seen in 20 years, no one had on hand, the information we needed to give them the best chance of survival. Again, that would be zero percent.
How do we fix the problem? The good news is that it can be fixed and I believe the solution is EmergiLink. I left the fire department to establish the company and save lives on a global level. EmergiLink is a company I started nearly 6 years ago to connect citizens with their emergency medical service providers ahead of time. Today with EmergiLink, 1st Responders can respond to a man down on the sidewalk and achieve the following just be scanning one of their index fingers; identify the member with their photo, display their name, address, emergency contact information, medications, allergies, recent hospitalizations, medical implants, private doctor and even their medical insurance information. With our mobile messaging technology, paramedics can send a brief message to the members" emergency contacts and it will search various registered devices, in real time, until there is an acknowledgement.
Signup for the program can be done on your home computer. Fingerprints are added later with the assistance from your local fire department. The cost is per household and less than what you would pay for two cups of Starbucks coffee per month. 50% of the subscriber fees actually go back into the hosting fire department provider to insure stations remain open, personnel stay employed and equipment gets updated.
I am on a global mission to save lives and I know how to do it. Working as a firefighter/paramedic all these years helps me know what is needed to make a dramatic and positive change in the delivery of emergency medical care. EmergiLink will also save members potentially thousands of dollars of unnecessary diagnostic tests—making a large dent in healthcare wasted spending.
Garage door openers cannot save lives. All they do is help you get back into your home when you get back from your run—that is if you make it back home!
www.emergilink.com