The Madison Fire Department is implementing new cardiac protocols that could potentially triple the survival rate of someone having cardiac arrest.
….Through the efforts of Dr. Darren Bean, medical director of the Madison Fire Department and a University Hospital physician, the Fire Department has gotten approval from the state to allow its paramedics and emergency medical technicians to revise their practices for cardiac resuscitation. The department is also launching a countywide program designed to improve survival rates from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest — rates that have not changed locally or nationally in 20 years.