This story appeared in the July/August 2020 issue as "When Hearts Attack." Subscribe to Discover magazine for more stories like this.
“911, what’s your emergency?” The call from dispatch alerts Cleveland EMS to a 57-year-old man with chest pain. The firefighters drop what they’re doing, while paramedic Kayla DeVor and her partner board the ambulance. The whole team is out of the station in less than a minute. Everything is in place for any emergency they may face, and they arrive on the scene in under nine minutes. The paramedics are already working as they approach the patient to determine whether he is conscious, whether he is breathing and how well he can respond to questions. DeVor asks, “Hey, sir, how’s it going? When did your symptoms start? What were you doing when the pain started?” As the team continues to get crucial information on the man’s condition and history of heart disease, diabetes and hypertension, they take his vitals.
DeVor hooks up an electrocardiogram, or EKG, which tracks the heart’s electrical activity. By now, the paramedics have been on the scene for five minutes, an eternity in the world of emergency medicine.
