March 28, 2024

Kellogg Fire Department receives grant to improve heart attack care

American Heart Association gives grant

Image 1 of 2

KELLOGG — The Kellogg Fire Department received a $25,000 grant this month from the American Heart Association to go toward improving heart attack care before patients reach the hospital.

The KFD is one of the three rural towns in Jasper County to receive money granted by Mission: Lifeline, an American Heart Association community-based initiative, aimed at improving the system of care for heart attack patients throughout rural Iowa. The Prairie City Fire Department and the Baxter Rescue Unit have also received a grant.

Deputy EMS Chief Mark Frymoyer said the grant went toward the purchase of a monitor that transmits messages directly to area hospitals. A doctor or medical personnel at the hospital will then recommend where the patient should be transported by sending signals through the monitor.

Hospitals involved in Mission: Lifeline are part of a system that ensures STEMI patients, whose blood flow is completely blocked to a portion of the heart, get the right care they need, as quickly as possible. Mission: Lifeline focuses on improving the system of care for these patients and at the same time improving care for all heart attack patients in Iowa.

“We are truly grateful to the American Heart Association and the Helmsley Charitable Trust for this grant,” said Frymoyer. “We will now have the opportunity to identify a heart attack faster, and provide lifesaving treatments before significant damage, or even death occurs.”

Frymoyer said Mission Lifeline has expanded the reach of the PCI hospital and treatment times optimized with the tools, education and resources of Mission Lifeline. The result is access to the most advanced STEMI care for all patients in Iowa, regardless of location.

The 14 volunteers at KFD will undergo training and are expected to begin using the monitor in January.

The program is made possible by $6.1 million in funding, including a $4.6 million grant from The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust.

Contact Kayla Langmaid at 641-792-3121 ext. 6513 or klangmaid@newtondailynews.com.