Paramedics treating patients in the sky

AUSTIN (KXAN) - Chest pain. Shortness of breath. Dizziness. Sweating. They are all signs of a heart attack.

It is the number one killer in men and women. When it hits, getting to the hospital fast can be a life saver.

KXAN News reporter Erin Cargile recently boarded a medical helicopter for an up close look at how paramedics treat patients in the air.

Kris Krause, 46, volunteered to be the practice patient. In real-life, she is a mother of two young kids and has never had heart trouble before.

Flight Paramedic Lee Hinrichsen told her, "A lot is going to be happening right now. Just try to stay patient with us."

Hinrichson and flight nurse David Wuertz start checking Kris's blood pressure and hook her up to a handheld EKG machine to check her heart beat.

A pilot flew the medical team into Pflugerville to meet her. Within a couple of minutes they determine Kris is having a heart attack and load her onto a gurney and roll her into the back of the small helicopter.

After lift-off, the team does what they can to lessen her pain with medication and alert doctors on the ground about the condition she is in. Wuertz relays information through the on-flight radio.

"ETA at this time is two minutes, two minutes to your facility."

Nurses at the Heart Hospital of Austin prep the cardiac catheterization lab where just last weekend they saved the life of a 53-year-old man.

Actual video from that day shows the man's clogged artery cutting off blood to his heart.

Catheterization Lab Director Dr. Frank Zidar was on-call that day. He inserted a small wire in the blood vessel and then added a stint which was blown up like a balloon. As it deflates, the video shows the blood start flowing once again.

"That's why every minute counts," said Dr. Zidar. "The faster they call 911, the faster we get them into the lab, the faster we open the artery, the more lives we save."

Back out on the helipad located on the roof of the hospital in Central Austin, the chopper is landing -- nine minutes after it took off from Pflugerville.

A team of doctors and nurses meet them outside and roll Kris into the operating room. Lucky for her, this is just a practice run. Kris hopes she never returns, but says she has learned a lot if she is ever faced with the unexpected.

"When you seek medical care quickly things go a lot better and your outcome can be significantly different than if you had not sought that medical care," said Krause.

Dr. Zidar says local paramedics and doctors recently teamed up to streamline the process of getting heart attack patients to the nearest "cath labs" faster whether they are in an ambulance or medical helicopter.

The American Heart Association has made it easy to find out if you are at-risk of having a heart attack in the next ten years.

Click here to learn your risk.

Watch the full story on KXAN News Sunday at 10 p.m.