Star STEMI Award Ceremony

Each month Genisis Hospital honors one EMS or Fire Department with the fastest response time to a heart attack, with an award ceremony called a STEMI, which stands for SegmenT Elevation Myocardial Infarction.

Early January 62-year-old Gary Norris was traveling on U.S. Route 40 when he began experiencing severe chest pains. He pulled over to the side of the road and notified his daughter who called 911. New Concord Fire Department and Paramedics responded on the scene.

“Very thankful for the EMT’s, for the doctor, all the staff and for my god,” said Norris. “Fear and just the pain really don’t allow you to think much, you’re just hoping to get there in time, and I was wondering there for a few minutes there if that was going to happen.”

Time was on Norris’s side as the response time from the 911 call to when he entered the hospital was under 40 minutes. Once he was in the building he was on a cath-lab table with the blockage opened in 13 minutes, a new record for the facility and one of the shortest times in the state. Travis Roach was a Parametric on the call and he recounted the days events.

“He was pretty critical condition, he was very diaphoretic, very sweaty, he was in a great deal of pain, having some trouble breathing. So we were able to alleviate some of those (pains) with treatments we gave. Some we were not able to treat due to his condition but we administered some medications and other things to help him.”

Thanks to the quick response time of all involved in Norris’s heart attack he is healthy, thankful, and looking forward to living a long life.