Fire Fighter Suffers Fatal Heart Attack During Training – New Mexico

Details

• Personal Author:
  Singal, Mitchell
• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Fire Fighter Fatality Investigation and Prevention Program (FFFIPP)
• Description:
  Death in the Line of Duty…a Summary of a NIOSH Fire Fighter Fatality Investigation
  
  On March 11, 2001, a 65-year-old male fire fighter collapsed as he finished a training exercise. Immediate cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and subsequent advanced life support (ALS) measures kept him alive
  
  he was stabilized at the local hospital emergency room and transferred by air ambulance to a referral hospital. He never regained consciousness, however, and 3 days later he died. The autopsy revealed an acute myocardial infarction (heart attack) and bilateral coronary artery stenosis (blockage of the arteries of the heart) and the pathologist concluded that the cause of death was the myocardial infarction with "severe hypoxic brain injury" resulting from the cardiac arrest. The death certificate, completed by the cardiologist, listed" cardiac arrest" as the immediate cause of death, due to "myocardial infarction," with "coronary artery disease" as the underlying cause. The following recommendations address some general health and safety issues identified during this investigation. This list includes some preventive measures that have been recommended by other agencies to reduce the risk of on-the-job heart attacks and sudden cardiac arrest among fire-fighters. These selected recommendations have not been evaluated by NIOSH, but they represent published research or consensus votes of technical committees of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) or fire service labor/management groups. 1. Institute preplacement and periodic medical evaluations. These should incorporate exercise stress testing, depending on the fire fighter's age and coronary artery disease risk factors. 2. Fire fighters should be cleared for duty and for respirator use by a physician knowledgeable about the physical demands of fire fighting, the personal protective equipment used by fire fighters, and the various components of NFPA 1582, the National Fire Protection Association's Standard on Medical Requirements for Fire Fighters and Information for Fire Department Physicians. 3. Phase in a mandatory wellness/fitness program for fire fighters to reduce risk factors for cardiovascular disease and improve cardiovascular capacity.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Cardiovascular Diseases Cardiovascular System Firefighters Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Cardiovascular-disease Cardiovascular-system-disorders Fire-fighters Fire-fighting Heart OSHA Region 6
• FACE - Firefighter:
  Cause of Death: Medical ; Cardiovascular: Heart Attack (Myocardial Infarction, Coronary Artery Disease and Coronary Vascular Disease)
• Series:
  Fire Fighter Fatality Investigation and Prevention Program (FFFIPP)
• Subseries:
  Death in the Line of Duty Report
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHFFFACEF200223
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Field Study ; Report
• Place as Subject:
  New Mexico ; OSHA Region 6
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DSHEFS - Division of Surveillance, Hazard Evaluations, and Field Studies ; DSR - Division of Safety Research
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-12
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20022276
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2003-103034
• Citation:
  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 F2002-23, 2002 Oct ; :1-12
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2003
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  92 - Public Administration - (NAICS)
• Start Date:
  2001/03/11
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:dd80129d7f2874c0dcf77cb9cf7e95609400e563daff9214c1037c6cdeb5fbe7c11b87ab0147bd3a1417c052cc39e59bc0fd20d3d76d7ff8da64ca76428dc147
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/163856/cdc_163856_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 121.05 KB ]