Assistant chief dies as a result of a cardiorespiratory arrest at the scene of a search and rescue operation - New Jersey.
Authors
Trout D; Hales TR; Baldwin TN
Source
Cincinnati, OH: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, FACE 99-F30, 2000 Jan; :1-6
On December 12, 1998, a 44-year-old male volunteer Assistant Chief responded to a request from the local police department for assistance in conducting a search of a wooded area for a person thought to be suicidal. After approximately 5 minutes of searching for the suspect, the victim suffered a witnessed cardiorespiratory arrest. Resuscitation efforts, begun immediately by EMTs at the scene and continued by paramedics and hospital personnel, were not successful. The death certificate listed an enlarged heart (cardiomegaly) as the cause of death. The autopsy revealed no coronary artery disease, an enlarged heart, and small areas of heart muscle scarring (myocardial fibrosis). The following recommendations address preventive measures that have been recommended by other agencies to reduce, among other things, the risk of on-duty cardiac arrests among fire fighters. It cannot be determined, however, whether these recommendations could have prevented the sudden cardiac arrest and subsequent death of this fire fighter. These recommendations have not been evaluated by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), but represent research presented in the literature, consensus votes of technical committees of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), and products of labor/management technical committees within the fire service. This preventive strategy consists of (1) minimizing physical stress on fire fighters; (2) screening to identify and subsequently rehabilitate high-risk individuals; and (3) encouraging increased individual physical capacity (fitness). Steps that could be taken to accomplish these ends include: Emergency response personnel should have annual medical evaluations to determine their medical ability to perform duties without presenting a significant risk to the safety and health of themselves or others. These evaluations should include an exercise stress test as recommended by NFPA 1582: Reduce risk factors for cardiovascular disease and improve cardiovascular capacity by offering a wellness/fitness program for emergency response personnel.
Links with this icon indicate that you are leaving the CDC website.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) cannot attest to the accuracy of a non-federal website.
Linking to a non-federal website does not constitute an endorsement by CDC or any of its employees of the sponsors or the information and products presented on the website.
You will be subject to the destination website's privacy policy when you follow the link.
CDC is not responsible for Section 508 compliance (accessibility) on other federal or private website.
For more information on CDC's web notification policies, see Website Disclaimers.
CDC.gov Privacy Settings
We take your privacy seriously. You can review and change the way we collect information below.
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance.
Cookies used to make website functionality more relevant to you. These cookies perform functions like remembering presentation options or choices and, in some cases, delivery of web content that based on self-identified area of interests.
Cookies used to track the effectiveness of CDC public health campaigns through clickthrough data.
Cookies used to enable you to share pages and content that you find interesting on CDC.gov through third party social networking and other websites. These cookies may also be used for advertising purposes by these third parties.
Thank you for taking the time to confirm your preferences. If you need to go back and make any changes, you can always do so by going to our Privacy Policy page.