Pioneer of paramedic model to be honored( TORRANCE (April 3 2008) The America...),Health

TORRANCE (April 3, 2008) The American Heart Associations Los Angeles Division today will honor John Michael Criley, M.D., the pioneer of the paramedic model in use around the country and one of the outstanding investigators at Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center (LA BioMed).

The association will present its Passion of the Heart Awards to Dr. Criley and William Koenig, Los Angeles County Emergency Medical Services Agencys medical director, at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel during the associations annual Heart Awards Ceremony beginning at 6 p.m. today.

The awards recognize the evolution of advanced cardiac care in LA County, starting with the paramedic program and continuing with recent advancements in which paramedics take patients suffering from a STEMI (S-T Elevation Myocardial Infarction) to a hospital providing intracoronary intervention to restore blood flow to the threatened heart muscle.

Dr. Criley is an outstanding investigator and cardiologist whose work has literally saved tens of thousands of lives, said LA BioMed President and CEO Kenneth P. Trevett, J.D. I congratulate him on this much-deserved award and for his many contributions to advancing the pace of discovery and improving human health care.

Before 1969, when Dr. Criley launched the paramedic program, most heart attack victims received little or no treatment before their arrival at the hospital. Dr. Criley had learned of the improved outcomes when teams of doctors and nurses rushed to the homes of heart attack victims in Belfast, Northern Ireland to provide advanced cardiac care before and during the transport of a patient to the hospital.

Sending doctors and nurses to the homes of patients in far-flung Los Angeles was an impractical solution. So Dr. Criley decided in 1969 to train the professionals who were already responding to emergencies Los Angeles firefighters.

The firefighters were already res
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