Treatment of ventricular fibrillation. Emergency medical technician defibrillation and paramedic services

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Abstract
The effect of rapid defibrillation by emergency medical technicians (EMT) combined with paramedic care was compared with that of standard EMT and paramedic curve on survival [in humans] from 540 witnessed episodes of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest caused by ventricular fibrillation. More than 400 EMT were trained in the recognition of ventricular fibrillation and operation of a defibrillator. For a portion of the 3-yr study, emergency care of 179 cases was randomized between the 2 types of services. For randomized cases, when the time interval between EMT and paramedic arrival was > 4 min there was significantly improved survival with EMT defibrillation and paramedic care (42%) compared with basic EMT and paramedic care (19%). Similar findings occurred when all cases were considered (38 vs. 18%). Defibrillation by EMT combined with paramedic services can enhance survival from ventricular fibrillation, compared with basic EMT and paramedic care.