Curly Hair and STEMI Care

Confession #1: My hair is curly. Over the top, ridiculous curly. I fight it every possible step of the way and recently a very astute young hairdresser told me to "stop fightin what the good Lord gave ya"!  I'm not there yet but I am giving it some serious thought.

Confession #2: Curly hair got me thinking about STEMI care. Especially after this recent article Reducing STEMI transfer times proves difficult was published this past week.  The article asks people to take a second look at lytics for treatment of STEMI and stop referencing that treatment as the "red headed step child" of STEMI care (OK, I added that part- but I believe it's the truth). Humor me and read through this post and I'll tell you how these two confessions connect.

How can the two of these possibly be related you ask?? Let me break it down for you.  There are places in the nation where we are doing a crappy job of getting patients who could be within the window for primary PCI, out of their referring hospital and into the primary PCI center within the 90 minute window.  As a tax paying citizen of this country, I say shame on you! If there is an option for a PCI center just a couple of miles down the road- I pray that your medical community comes to their senses and endorses the bypass protocols you need to get there.

There are also places in the nation, like the great state of South Dakota- where I think that we need to get the rest of the world to understand that we have stopped fighting what the good Lord gave us.  What does it mean? It means we are a lytic state.

That's right people, if you are a resident of South Dakota, or passing through (perhaps on your way to the infamous Sturgis Motorcycle Rally), and have a STEMI and land in a referring hospital, you will get lytics.

You will get lytics, you will get them under the 30 minute window, and sent down the road for your PCI. Are we still aiming for a Door In Door Out time of 30 minutes? Yes.
Here's why:

• 6 PCI centers in the state (3 are in Sioux Falls, 1 in Aberdeen, 1 in Watertown, 1 in Rapid City
• Distance to the PCI center (Up to 250 miles in parts of the state)
• 4 helicopters that cover the entire state (2 in the SE Corner, 1 in the SW corner, and one in the north central part of the state)
• 3 fixed wing airplanes in the whole state
• An 80% volunteer, BLS EMS environment in the state

Keep in mind South Dakota is 76,000 square miles.  You could put 40 states the size of Delaware within the South Dakota borders.

Yep, there comes a time when you stop fightin what the good lord gave ya. That doesn't mean you aren't going to have the most bitchin, beautiful curly hair and the best STEMI care you could ask for! 

Happy Holidays my friends......JD