Dispatchers add aspirin recommendation to protocol

Sunday, March 16, 2008

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Laura Liddell teaches dispatchers about the new protocol.

MANATEE COUNTY (Bay News 9) -- Manatee County 911 dispatchers are going to start advising people with chest pains to take aspirin.

Laura Liddell, who is training the dispatchers, said there's strong evidence showing that immediate aspirin therapy may reduce heart damage in certain heart attack patients.

"Basically what we can do before the ambulance gets there, the less things they have to do," Liddell said. "So it expedites their treatment on scene."

The 911 dispatchers will start using the new protocol on March 20.

The National Academies of Emergency Dispatch studies show that early administration of aspirin benefits more patients than it may compromise.

Dispatchers won't recommend aspirin to patients if: they are not alert, are under 16 years old, have had an allergic reaction to aspirin before or if there's a possibility they suffer from internal bleeding.

Rarely do dispatchers advise patients to take anything before paramedics arrive, but aspirin administration will be added to their protocol.

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