Scott Paulsen, a resident of Tampa Bay, FL, has credited an Early Heart Attack Care (EHAC) resource he received while attending an AED training session at his work in helping save his life.

Ten days after the training, Paulsen experienced discomfort in his chest that would not subside. Remembering the advice he read in the EHAC pamphlet, he went to the emergency department to get checked out. Paulsen later learned he had an aortic dissection and was transferred to the AdventHealth Pepin Heart Institute for surgery.

“The pain being so mild or the symptoms being so mild, I could’ve easily gone to bed and wrote it off, and what I understand, I wouldn’t have woken up that night,” said Paulsen. He has since recovered and is doing well.

The ACC’s EHAC program works to educate the public about early signs of heart attack so that people can detect the symptoms and intervene, preventing heart damage and even death due to a major cardiovascular event.

Amanda McCall, BSN, RN, the cardiovascular accreditation coordinator at AdventHealth Zephyrhills and AdventHealth Dade City, led the AED training that Paulsen attended, providing the EHAC materials that ended up saving his life.

“Providing EHAC education to the general public helps participants recognize and respond in the event of an emergency,” said McCall. “Promoting awareness to the community can be a key factor in the prevention of heart attacks. Early intervention can truly make all the difference in a person’s outcome.”

By completing the steps to achieve ACC’s Chest Pain Center Accreditation, facilities can access these life-saving education materials and share it with their communities, spurring more success stories like Paulsen’s.

“As a HeartCARE Center facility, we demonstrate our commitment to world-class cardiovascular care through comprehensive process improvement, disease and procedure-specific accreditation, professional excellence, and community engagement,” McCall added. “Working through the accreditation process with the ACC has helped our team deliver relevant patient education.”

Learn more about the EHAC program and ACC’s Chest Pain Center Accreditation.

Keywords: ACC Accreditation, Chest Pain, Patient Education as Topic