2007/03/07

Congestion Hurts Medical Victims

Ever hope that when it is your turn to take the screamer car to the hospital that they’ll get there on time for you?

A little googling and I see that congestion is a problem for emergency medical services almost everywhere. Here is an article from the Bureau of Emergency Medical Services in Arizona.

This outtake makes the point for me:

Most fire departments and emergency medical service providers have defibrillation capability; however, due to the location of the victim and factors such as traffic congestion, precious minutes may pass before they can respond with this life-saving technology. Layperson defibrillation can occur within minutes of a witnessed out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Every minute that passes before a cardiac arrest is treated decreases the chance of survival by 10%. For many, quicker access to an AED represents their only chance to survive.

Interesting that they singled out traffic congestion, eh?

About 4 years ago I saw two Emergency Medical Services guys sitting in my local MacDonald’s…

“You guys ever have a problem with traffic congestion on your way to the hospital?”

“Sure.”

“Is this a concern?”

“Comes up at every meeting.”

And your turn is coming as sure as is mine.

Apparently sitting in your car stressed out in traffic makes it comes sooner.

2 comments:

davehowlett said...

Great points Bern. My brother is an ER doc and those conversations come up frequestly at the hospitals as well. Congratulations on your recent Angel award in emerging technology!

Bern Grush said...

Thanks, Dave: Winning Canadian Venture Forum's Best Angel Company 2007 was a nice surprise for us, but that comes with having such a great CEO in Kamal Hassan. It is only now, after 5 years of R+D that investors are starting to get it. Disruptive technology is always slow to catch on and then finally takes a market by storm. That storm is 12 to 24 months away. I can already hear the train. - Bern